Another Rob First

When Sheila and I got married she was excited to do her Christmas cards. Maybe it was the excitement of getting to write her new name or not, either way she really enjoyed it. She spent days getting them all ready to be mailed. My job was to take the cards to the post office. One would think that is a simple task, however keep in mind who my beloved wife entrusted with this great honor. ME! I took the stack of neatly prepared cards and off I went. On my way I decided to swing by office depot to take a look around. Upon my arrival I remembered Sheila's Golden rule about leaving mail in plain site in an automobile, It seems that it is a no no. The quick thinker that I am grabbed the stack of cards and shoved them under my drivers seat. Off to shop I went. Never again to think twice about the cards I put under the seat. Sheila also neglected to ask me if I had in fact accomplished the mission in which I was given. Now lets turn the clock forward to May of the following year. I am out on probably another Sheila assignment, when this guy pulls out in front of me. Can you guess what came flying out from under my seat? Yep that stack of forgotten Christmas cards. I did what most people would not have done. Ran to the post office and mailed those cards out right then. A few weeks later Sheila said can you believe that so and so just got their Christmas card? I acted in disbelief. I finally confessed to my fiasco about 2 years ago. I don't think she believed me at first, but I think that reality set in and she finally realised that in deed this is one of the things that make me, ME.

Having said all that I made up for that this year. Today (11-30-2007) I gave out my Christmas cards at work. Even I surprise myself from time to time. Tomorrow is December 1st. I can not believe how this year has flown by.

Blessings till I post again.

Remember whats his name?

I survived my first new hair day. I think I did an okay job at styling it this morning. Of course it didn't look nearly as good as when Angela styled it yesterday but I'll get it. My co-workers all loved my new do so I guess I made a good choice. I think I may try to keep up with the new style.

I'm watching a TV special on Child Stars, Where are they now. It's funny to see what they looked like back then vs now. Some look awesome and the years have not been to kind to others. But that is the way the cookie crumbles. Did you ever see A Christmas Story? It was the one with the kid who wanted the red rider BB gun? He was just on there. He looks nothing like you would expect. He is still sporting the glasses (obviously didn't make enough money from that show to pay for eye surgery) Well he is now a producer (again maybe not they successful since he could not afford that eye surgery previously referenced). It's also neat to know that not all of these child actor/actresses stayed in the business. some of them are now lawyers, producers, camera men/women, work in radio. I guess acting is not for everyone.

The host of this show is Christopher Knight who played on the Brady bunch. Oddly enough the Brady bunch is the only show featured tonight that showed where all of the actors are now. Coincidence? I think not.

Blessings till I post again.

Shave and a Hair Cut

Something that I have been threatening to do for years I did tonight. I got a different hair cut. The lady who has been cutting my hair for probably 7 years or longer was shocked that I wanted something new. She asked me how long I had worn my hair the way I have. My answer. 32 years. at least I think that is how long I had it that way. It's been that way as long as I can remember. Now if I keep this style up or not it is any ones guess. I'll have to post a picture soon so you can judge for yourself if I made a wise decision or not. Sheila claims that she likes it and I believe her. The real test will be in the morning to see if I can style it the way that Angela (the hair cut lady) styled it.

I heard that the man who invented Gatorade died yesterday. No thoughts on this yet, just thought I would share my knowledge to let the world know that not all news passes me by.

On a totally different note I had a thought last night to look up wikipedia and see what Larry the Cable Guy's real name is. To my surprise it is Daniel Lawrence Whitney. He was born on 2-17-1963. My birthday is 2-16-1975. Nothing outstanding here, just thought it was neat that he almost shares my birthday. I thought I would impress Sheila with my newly gained knowledge and I went upstairs to tell her what I had learned. She shared with me that she had learned that knowledge online the night before. Apparently there was an article online that she read that gave his real name. So my research was in vain. I would have told her about the Gatorade guy dying but something tells me she already knew that as well.

Blessings till I post again.

Migraines and Nature

I woke up this morning with a slight head ache, Had a bowl of all brand and headed out the door by 5:31 am as normal. By 6:30 my slight head ache turned into a full blown migraine. My wife who says I can never get "enough" light would have been wrong today. Head Aches them self are a nuisance, but Migraines are in a category all to them self. I suffered through the day as well as my co -workers. But to be honest I am not sure why they would suffer. I never said two words to anyone and yet I was flooded with requests to "go home". Well I didn't go home. I suffered through the day and somewhere around 1:30 my migraine ended up getting tired of fighting me and settled down to a normal head ache. For a brief moment of time today I would have temporarily traded places with that poor mouse that is still sitting outside of our garage door. I think the next time I know someone has a head ache or God forbid a migraine, I will offer the free advice that was offered to me all day today. GO HOME!!!

And yes the mouse really is still sitting outside our garage door. You may wonder why I have not yet picked up a shovel or anything to move this creator to his/her final resting place. Well the answer could be an excuse like, I'm tired or I've been working so much overtime (which I have been). but its nothing like that. I HATE to come into contact with dead things. It makes my skin crawl. To be honest I was really hoping that nature would take its course and a cat or a raccoon would happen by and see a free dinner. (do racoon's eat mice?) sorry I'm getting side tracked again. Well it looks as though nature has taken a vacation and I get to step in and do what I should have done 2 days ago. Maybe nature will get hungry for a midnight snack tonight (one can hope can't he?).

Blessings till I post again.

Mice and MORE LEAFS!

ahhh day two of doing leafs. We spent another 2 hours outside in the cold tending to the leafs. You would think we are done right? WRONG we still have a big patch in the back yard that needs to be finished. It started raining as soon as we finished all that we were going to do today. From what I hear it may be raining tomorrow as well. Not to mention that I will be working until 7:00 tomorrow night. So unless the rain stops and the sun shines past 7:00 it is a safe bet that leafs are not on my schedule tomorrow.

As we finished up tonight Sheila made a discovery. A little baby mouse. I think it scared Sheila when she first saw it. She also noticed that it appeared to be cold and breathing funny. Well for those of you who know me I LOVE animals. I do not like mice, but I was worried about him/her and after being in the house for about an hour I decided that I just had to go out and check on Micky. (okay so I named him/her). Well, I am said to say that baby Micky has gone on to that cheese wheel in the sky.

Gee it would have been nice to end this post on a positive note. But that I guess that is life.

Blessings till I post again.

The Birds and the Leaves

I'm outside this evening sucking up the leafs with the riding lawn mower and this blue bird decided he is going to attack me. Well he didn't really attack me, but he wanted to make me aware that he was there. He kept taunting me and then parched on a limb and would wait for me to come around again so he could swoop down and strut his stuff. If this bird had been a turkey and doing this a few days earlier his name would have been called dinner.

I learned that when you are sucking up leafs after it has rained that you have to go SLOOOOWW. I came to this conclusion after zooming down a row of thick wet leafs. turned around and saw the partially chopped of leafs that my mower did not suck up. upon inspection I found thousands of wet leafs compacted in the tube. And yes I was smart enough to turn the mower off before sticking my hands inside to pull out the leafs.

Have you ever been to TGI Fridays? If you have not (or have) Let me recommend the lime cilantro salad dressing. It is low fat and it is awesome. It is a bit spicy so if you are not into spicy foods it is not for you. This is now my favorite place to eat salad because of the dressing alone. We looked up the recipe for that dressing online this evening and I can't wait to make it to see how it compares. I'll let you know if/when we finally make it.

Blessings till I post again.

Thanksgiving

I survived Thanksgiving! Let me start by saying that I did end up eating not one but two slices of red velvet cake. It was awesome. Sheila's Mom made it. It was the Paula Deen Recipe. I did not eat a bunch for dinner. I had a slice of turkey and a piece of ham that you could probably fit in a tablespoon. I also had 1 tablespoon of potato salad and here is where I spent my calories. I had my moms mac and cheese. Well to be honest it was made by Paula Deen's Recipe. Maybe we should have just had her fix our dinner since we used most of her recipes. But I only had 2 servings of mac and cheese. I would have to say that my fear of over eating today did not come to pass. But my guilt of eating that wonderful kept me on my bike tonight and I rode 24 miles. That should help me sleep better tonight. Tomorrow is...... LEFT OVERS.
I don't know if you are like me or not, but left overs usually taste better than the prior day. So I know I can't wait to have another tablespoon of ham or turkey and yes probably another slice of that sinful red velvet cake..... Paula Deen you should be ashamed of yourself. If I gain weight I hold you personally responsible.

A nice surprise to add to the day was that my uncle from Indianapolis came down to visit. He brought his girl friend and her son. I have to admit that I do not remember her name. I think my adhd kicked in during our greeting and I missed that part. Of course for those of you who really know me that should come as no surprise. Not to mention that had I actually been paying attention I would have forgotten her name within 5 mins anyway. This is just something that always seems to happen to me. It's nothing personal and I don't do it on purpose, but i am just terrible at remembering names. You should ask my co-worker.... you know Oprah... okay her name isn't really Oprah but that is what I called her by mistake one day. And yes I was called out on it.

Okay, I'm really tired and have bored you enough tonight.

Blessings till I post again.

Thanksgiving, Overtime and Weight.

I am soooo tired tonight. got up at 5am which I always do and I have been going all day. I got off work at 5:30 had dinner and the out to best buy to purchase an external hard drive. I got it with some gift certificates that I earned at work. I had enough to purchase the hard drive and extra left over to buy a wireless game controller for the PlayStation. More than likely the nephews will benefit from that more than I will. I still have $1.00 and some change left on the gift card. Wow what to buy. I've been working on the hard drive for over an hour and I think I finally figured it out. The instructions indicate that you plug it in and then you are set to go. That may be true for the average bear, but keep in mind that I am not the average bear.

I finally bumped up my calorie intake to1700. I just barely hit that tonight so I will not be able to ride my bike. If I do I will have to eat more and it is way to late for that. As for the rest of this week I will be working over till 5:30 tomorrow and Wednesday. No word on if we are off for Thanksgiving and the day after yet. They tell us that we are off but if we get hit with the inventory we will be working. I think that it is safe to say I'll be off, but we never really know for sure. We were supposed to work 7-5 on Saturday and Sunday, We worked 7-1:30 on Saturday and not enough work to come in on Sunday (which made me happy). I can not believe that Thanksgiving is just 3 days away. I can not say that I am thrilled about the food. I know that I am going to drive myself crazy with keeping track of my calories that day. And a weight update for those who may or may not care. I have now lost 105 lbs. I have 5 lbs to go to hit the weight that the "professionals" say I should weight. I am going to quit loosing weight after that and just focus on my abs and my flabs. Now if I could just figure out how to get off the excess skin hanging on various parts of my body I'll quit stressing out.

Blessings till I post again.

Nephews and Plaster

My nephews came over to visit tonight. Emmanuel ran over to me the second he walked in the door and whispered in my ear. "Uncle Rob, Can we stay with you for a while"? Of course I answered. I think I made his day. Mom and Dad left shortly after that and they stayed for a few hours and played games and had a good old time. After it was time to take them home I dropped RM off and Emmanuel wanted to go with me to the store. I had to go to Kroger's to get Sheila some medicine. She has been sick all day. So I agreed. Emmanuel was so helpful. He wanted to buy Aunt Sheila a Nascar Gift Card to make her feel better. I told him no and asked if he wanted to get her a get well card. He said "No, She can't spend a get well card" Kids are so funny. I can't wait until we have our own. He then managed to snucker a bag of Doritos out of me. He even wanted to buy Aunt Sheila some tums to make her feel better. I explained that She did not need tums, I don't think he understood but he was okay with not getting them.

I did some home improvements today. As some of you may know our house was struck by lightning in September and it blew a hole in the wall in our spare bedroom. Well we got some plaster and Mr. Bob Villa here patched the hole. I think I did a nice job. It's probably not as good as Bob Villa would have done, but for a Rob job it will do. I guess tomorrow I'll sand it again and see if it needs another coat. After that we get the pleasure (and I mean that as sarcastically as possible) of painting the walls.

Well that's all I can do tonight. I am tired and still want to ride a few more miles on the bike. So...

Blessings till I post again.

Thats not what I heard!

Sheila wanted a blizzard tonight so we went to the Dairy Queen in Clarksville. That was an experience. She asked the guy (drive thru) if they still had the Carmel chip cheesecake blizzard. He said, no but we have the waffle cone blizzard. Okay lets stop there for a second. Those two blizzards are nothing alike. Why would you assume that someone would want something totally different than what they asked for? Okay Sheila says no, You don't have the cheesecake blizzard anymore? She then goes on to describe the blizzard in great detail. It has cheesecake, Carmel and chocolate chips. They guy then says, oh yes we have that. So She says, okay that's what I want. We pay for the blizzard and pull of only to find that the guy has given her the waffle cone blizzard, which does not contain any type of cheesecake in it what so ever. I told her that I get tired of having to settle for things we do not want. So she drove back up and went in with her second hand blizzard. That's when the manager walks up to her to say "I heard crispy". okay what ever crispy has to do with it I don't know. So She said well that's not what I asked for and the lady made her a new blizzard. She then offered my wife some friendly advice. Next time do not say crispy. I am a witness that the word crispy was never uttered, neither by the drive thru guy or by my wife. I just love it how people who where not part of an original conversation adds words to a conversation that were never said. Customer Service is not a high priority at Dairy Queen. I wait for the day that they put a Dairy Queen in the post office. I think they would be a perfect match.

Blessings till I post again.

Magical Diet Ice Cream

So last night I broke all my rules. I ate past 8:00 and I even had a bowl of chocolate Ice Cream. It wasn't a Rob size portion ( 1 or 2 spoons ) it was a normal person size portion. I was totally expecting to see the scale tip the other direction this morning and to my surprise I had lost a pound. WOW that is some Ice Cream. If only Jared from the subway commercials had known about my magical ice cream he could have been doing Ben and Jerry's' commercials. Of course we all know that Ice Cream is not the best choice for those wanting to loose weight, but I just found it very humorous that the result I had expected was opposite from what I got.

And I will leave you with the following email that I received tonight. I really liked this email because it had a good message and I thought I would share it with you as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A Dog's Purpose, (from a 6-year-old)Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure.They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life-- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?" The six-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

Blessings till I post again.

Wikipedia and the post office.

I looked up the word blog on wikipedia. Here is the definition.

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

The funny thing is until recently I had never heard that word used before. It just sounds like a made up word.

Remember my earlier post about strolling down memory lane? (if you don't just scroll down, it's the post before this one). well I had another memory lane moment today. Actually this one was not from years ago. It actually happened a few months back. I'll start off by saying that if you want to feel better about yourself just go stand in line at the post office. Sheila and I were in the post office (I guess to mail a letter, why else would we be there). And the guy in front of us smelled of alcohol something awful. But he wasn't making a scene so I was fine with that. We finally arrive to the cashier to tell her what we wanted. She gave us a form and instructed us to go fill it out and bring it back to her. She said we would not have to wait in line again. So we did as instructed. upon returning to the cashier another gentleman walked up and began ranting because his package was not there. He claimed to have called and was told it was there. After further investigation the cashier learned that he had called the other location and was told it was at the Clarksville location. After more investigation we learned that he had called as soon as the post office opened and apparently when you do that they stick your package back on the truck and send it back out to you. I guess they figure that if you are calling you are home. So needless to say we got to see a really good show. And not to mention that at the other cashier station there was another guy making a scene as well. I told Sheila that he must be expecting something really good to be this up in arms because his "package" wasn't there. I told her that he should have had his pot shipped fed ex next time ( yeah that was mean but I was miffed at this point ). After we left I told my wife that next time I felt bad about my life that I would take a trip to the post office so I would feel better about myself. I then told her that in just 5 mins we had a brush with a boozer a looser and a pot head. She laughed and then we went to our next adventure.

Blessings till I post again.

Blast from the past

Do you ever find yourself strolling down memory lane? There are many things from my childhood that I wish I could forget. It's funny that I have problems remembering the names of people that I have day to day dealings with or what I had for supper the night before and yet I find myself at odd times recalling things from long ago as if they had just happened. I was walking to my car the other day and I recalled a day I came home from school. I had a terrible headache. I was in the 2nd grade. I remember laying down on my bed and looking out the window for what seemed a life time. I remember the curtains on the windows. They were race cars. I even remember the layout of the room (this coming from a guy who has lost his car in a parking lot on more than one occasion). Then today I remember the time I took my books and made towers out of them and knocked them down (I was Godzilla). I even remember the time I took the sheets off the bed and made a nest on the floor, Just like Big Birds on sesame street (I was 5 years old). I just find it amazing that I can recall such unimportant things from my childhood in such great detail. I often wish I could do just the opposite. You know, just recall some painful memory and say well I hated that and click the erase button and poof gone forever. I know that those times in my life are part of who I am today (good or bad). I would like to think that it has made me a better person for it. I know that it created a lot of walls that my family and friends wish they could take a bulldozer to. Over the years since I met my wife a lot of those walls have come down. I think some of the thicker walls have deteriorated some, but I still need that bulldozer to show up to complete the mission. If you have walls hanging around your back yard, take inventory and tear down the ones you don't need. you might find that the thicker walls might come down a little easier if those various silly walls clear the way. just something I need to do and thought I would pass the advice I need to take along to you.

Blessings till I post again.

The Nabisco Conspiracy

so today I am enjoying some Nabisco 100 calories snack cookies. They are called Alpha Bites. The concept here is that you have little cookies with a letter on each one. Here is my problem with that. I counted the cookies in the pack before I ate them. Okay you can stop wondering now, there are 18 cookies in there. Apparently the people at Nabisco has overlooked one minor detail. There are 26 letters in the alphabet and only 18 cookies in the package. I have a real problem with this. I feel that there should be 26 cookies in the pack. I know they have to be able to make those cookies smaller to get a total of 26 with each cookie stamped with each letter of the alphabet. Problem number two. Why did I end up with 5 O's in there. not only have they jipped me on eight cookies, but now they have jipped me on what could have been 4 additional letters. What do they think I am going to spell that has 5 O's in there. Okay I realise that these cookies are intended to be "fun" but how can I enjoy a cookie that I know is missing letter's of the alphabet. If I were OCD this would defiantly not be the snack of choice for me. I think they should put a disclaimer on the package. "warning if you have OCD you will be upset after learning that we have left 8 cookies out of this package. and by the way we have repeated the few letters that we gave you over and over again. Purchasing this product could result in misspelling of words. What are they going to do next put body parts in the package of those keebler elves? I guess they could call it CSI Keebler. Just another quirk of mine. Yes I have many and I don't think my mind was ready for one more, but what can you do but vent your frustration and eat the darn cookies.
Blessings till I post again.

Turky Day and Smurfs

Thanksgiving is vastly approaching us. All of those nice low cal foods that we all love to eat. I am going to have a hard time eating that day because I have become so obsessed with calories and exercise. Why just tonight I read on the menu at Steak n Shake that you can get the nutrition value from the web or to ask your server. So guess what I did? that's right I asked my server. And if for some off the wall reason you are wondering, the salad I had was 340 calories. The dressing would have been an extra 50 calories so I just ate my salad with out the dressing. I did that because I only had 100 calories left to eat for the day and off the bat there was 240 I would already have to work off. Okay I seeing that I am going off on a tangent again. More obsession from Rob that your day would have been better off without.

This was another one of those get up and go ALL day Sundays for me. We went to church, Had lunch, I came home and cleaned up in my workshop some more. Wal-Mart and now home and ready to call it a night. Oh yeah, and I had a pre senior moment. We were at Wal-Mart and I say a grumpy smurf robe. I told Sheila I would buy it for her. She pointed out the fact that I was mistaken in my cartoon characters. As it turns out I had the grumpy part right, but that smurf was a dwarf (as in the 7 dwarfs). gee wiz. It's time I get some sleep.

Blessings till I post again.

Saturday, not a day of rest!

I did not get a chance to rest today. I pretty much ran all day long. The only real sit down time I got was when we went to A birthday party at a Friends House. Her son turned 2. He is so adorable. They had a big inflated jumpy thingy and all the kids loved it. I wanted to take my nephews but I won't go into that story. That is a sore subject with me right now.

Did you all know that I am boring and what I have to say does not matter worth a flip? Well I guess that is what my mother thinks. They stopped by today and I was trying to tell my story of the excellent customer service I got on the phone this morning (NOT, that's a whole other story I'll share later) And right in the middle of it she cut me off to tell me and Sheila a story that I had already heard not once, not twice, but three times already. I tried to start my story up once again over her story and she just got louder and kept going. I just shut up and Sheila said that the look on my face told it all. She could tell I was very angry about what had just happened. I think my dad knew as well that I was less than pleased. I didn't say very much after that and they finally left. I will never understand why my mother can never give someone else a chance to speak. She always thinks what she has to say is more important. I'm not saying that it isn't more important always, but come on let someone else have an opportunity to speak. She wonders why I do not call or come over very much. Well she will remain clueless but at least anyone who reads this post will know my side of the story. *** note to self, delete this if mom ever gets on the Internet, who am I kidding. put this one in the save file!

Blessings till I post again.

OJ and Bambi

I hear OJ is in the news again. Looks like we may be having yet another Trial of the century starring OJ Simpson. Wonder if Homer and Marge will testify? Oh wait, wrong Simpson's. any who... I just hope I do not get sucked in to the trial like I did last time. During the murder trials I came home from work every day and sat down and watched endless hours of this murder trial circus. I tuned in every day just hoping that Judge Ito would have shaved off his beard or died his hair purple or something. You know just to keep it interesting. I can't be 100% sure if he did it or not. I think he did it. But I can't know for sure. Only God, OJ and the two victims know for sure. And last I hear the victims are not talking. Maybe they should have consulted with that Mrs. Cleo to talk to Nicole to find out who did it. Speaking of Mrs. Cleo where the heck was she on Sept 10th? You would think she would have saw Sept 11th coming. That just proves to me that they are all big frauds.

Whats the deal with Deer? Why the heck do they get hit by so many cars? If I were a deer crossing the road and I saw head lights coming at me I'd be thinking. Man I need to get the heck out of the way. They seem to get fixed on your head lights as if to say... wow that's pretty. Do deer have ADHD or something? I remember last year we were on our way home from my wife's Aunt's (might have been Thanksgiving or something) and I remember looking out the window trying to catch a glimpse of a deer or big foot or anything interesting. About the time I was thinking I'd really like to see a deer I got my wish. This deer ran out onto the expressway. my wife swerved and just missed the deer. We heard the horns and fur just grase by the van. My wife looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see the car behind us put Bambi in his final resting place. I'm sure the guy who hit Bambi made just as much of a mess in his pants as Bambi did on the expressway. I know I probably would have. Well I don't know how I went from OJ to Bambi but like everything else in my life my thoughts are not connected.

Well good night.

Blessings till I post again.

X-10 and Pay Toilets

It's kinda late tonight but I thought I would ramble on before I hit the hay.
today went really quick (not that I am complaining about that) My friend Jeff came over and he helped me get together the x-10 stuff. x-10 is a wireless remote system that allows you to turn on and off lights in various rooms of the house without getting out of your easy chair. That sounds lazy, and it is. But what I am excited about is the light switch. We often times find ourselves sitting in the basement watching TV only to find out that we left the basement light on in our laundry room. That means to turn it off we have to go to the top of the steps and physically turn off the switch. It also works the opposite way as well. I can't tell you the number of times I am in the basement watching TV and ready to go to bed only to discover that I turned the light off. I have to leave the TV on so I can see to get to the top of the steps to turn on the light. Then come back down and turn off the TV so I can go back up to turn off the light and go to bed. Long story short it will save me a lot of time. and since they say time is money I guess this thing will make us money. (ha wishful thinking there).

Do you remember pay toilets? I don't but my wife often has told me the story that the white castles in Jeffersonville used to have a pay toilet. She actually remembers this (I can't remember what I had for supper last night). Well I said that to say this. I was in the rest room at work today and I got up to hear the sound of coins falling into the toilet. I don't know exactly how much fell in because the toilets are the automatic jobs that flush as soon as you get up. so I hear plop plop flush flush. I just hope that it does not mess up the plumbing. I think I'll be okay, but the first time I hear of the toilets flooding the bathrooms I am going to think about the white castle pay toilets from years gone by.

Blessings till I post again.

Passwords and Squirrels

Everything now days requires a password. This is a great idea for people who have excellent memories. At work I have at minimum 4 passwords going at the same time. all of which expire at different times. some 15 days some 30 days and some 60 days. One program I use says every 30 days and I have been promted to change my password only once in the year that I have been employed there. I hate having to change my passwords. Once upon a time your password could be what ever you wanted it to be. Now they want at least 1 capital letter 1 number and everything is case sensitive. Then you have to remember the stupid thing. Where is the space age technology that they show in old TV shows that you can just put your finger print in and it lets you access what you need. Come on even Kroger employees has that technology to clock in and out. That would make life a lot simpler for me.

Now for squirrels.
I think squirrels are so interesting to watch. we have some squirrels that hang around our house and they each have their own personality. Crazy I know. I have come to the conclusion that one squirrel is the surveillance officer. He normally is in the front yard and he climbs the bricks on the house. I have even seen him peaking in our windows. Maybe he is casing the joint. I know if any nuts come up missing where I will be looking. Then we have the "Rob" squirrel. He seems to do everything backwards. I saw him out in the falls of the pond the other day hiding his nuts in the waterfall. He is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Does he really think that nut will be where he left it when he comes back to get it later? And just how does he think he is going to get it out of the pond. does he have scuba gear that I am not aware of? Then we also have the "bum" squirrel. He is a beggar. If he sees me outside he likes to come close and beg for nuts. Of course he has not built a good trusting relationship with me yet because when I do get nuts or bread for him he always runs away. I don't think he is even the one who reaps the benefits of the nuts I provide. I'm sure that the surveillance office is the one who gets the benefits of the beggars hard work. At least the squirrels don't have to worry about thinking up new passwords every 30 days.

Blessings till I post again.

Ranting about nothing

I am so sick of hearing about Britney Spears. It seems as though I can not turn on a TV, Open a magazine, or open the Internet explorer without the words Britney Spears glaring back at me. So she is a terrible mother, She can not dress, and lets face it does she even own a hair brush? But why do we have to hear about it day in day out. You can drive down the street and see moms who are just as bad as her, but do you hear about them on the news? NO! and why is that, it's because they are not famous. I say we all just agree that she is an unfit mother and move on to the next subject. For the love of Pete. Lets quit talking about Britney.

OK next subject.

We had Chinese tonight. Here were our fortunes.
Sheila- The issue isn't what you're saying; mostly, it's the way you say it.
Rob - That wasn't chicken. OK just kidding here is what mine said: Nothing in the world is more dangerous that sincere ignorance. (couldn't have said it better myself)

And I'll leave you with some useless trivia.
I am reading this out of my Gaither Homecoming magazine that came in the mail yesterday.
It's Called Turkey Trivia.

Turkey Trivia:
The turkey industry grosses over $1 billion a year.
The average American consumes over 15 pounds of turkey per year.
93 percent of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day.
Turkey is lower in cholesterol than beef. (Jeff pay attention to this one)
The dark meat (thigh, legs) contain more fat and cholesterol than white meat.

Okay there is more trivia but I won't bore you with any more of it tonight.

Blessings till I post again.

Climbing the walls

Okay, I have only rode my bike 4 miles tonight and I am not going to do any more tonight. I'm not feeling 100% and I don't want to push it. Besides that I have just barley hit my minimum calories for the day and I really don't feel like eating just so I can exercise. That just seems crazy to me. So since I can not exercise I am finding myself to be bored. So I'll probably go clean something or find something to keep me busy.

Mondays are bitter sweet because you have to get back into your routine, but if you are like me and strive for routine it is not that bad. I get up at the same time every day (weekends included) and I go to bed the same time each night (weekends excluded). And almost every part of my life is routine. I like to eat at the same times each day, I like to eat the same portions of food (for the most part) and I have found that I have a tendency to separate things in order of sizes and shapes. It's just something I have always done. Take for instance a package of skittles. Some people just pour and eat. but I enjoy separating the colors and eating all of the same colors together. It might sound a bit OCD, but I promise I am not OCD in the least. I just have strange little quirks that other people don't have. We all have them. I just may have more than my fair share and I'm okay with that. For instance I don't like the crust on pies. I eat all of the filling leaving a perfect outline of what the pie used to be. Some people find this strange. I find it normal. It's all in interpretation. Whats normal to you may not be normal to me and vice-versa. So I say lets accept our differences and move forward. Life might be like a box of chocolates, but you bet Rob will be sorting out what he gets. (man that was corny, even for me).

Blessings till I post again.

Atomic Clocks and Runny Nose

I know you are all in suspense to find out if my atomic clock rolled back an hour at 2am this morning. and the answer is.......... YES. Gotta love those guys out in Colorado. They are on top of their game.

Sheila is doing much better than she was a few days ago. She is not 100% yet but she is rounding the corner fast.

I started having a runny nose about an hour ago. everything is clear so good news it is just allergies.

I found yet another thing today that I am not so good at. We were on our way to the post office and I noticed that the time was wrong in Sheila's Car. So I tried unsuccessfully to set the time. Even resorted to getting out the manual. Long story short. Sheila had the time set before I could even find the page that gives you the instructions on how to set the time. I think that all cars should be the same way. So no matter what car you are in you can set the time. My car is "Rob Proof" It has an H (hour) and M (Min) and all you do is push that button and it advances it to the next hour or min.

I finally found time today to watch our new TV. Actually it was only for an hour and I just finished watching it. Gotta say I like it. The color is great and it has a big picture which is what I need in a TV. I had my glasses on so that defeated the purpose of getting a bigger screen. But come on we are talking about me. I am not known for doing things that makes sense. Okay that is my only defense. Take it or leave it.

Blessings till I post again.

Sassafras

Are there any special smells that just turns your stomach? Mine is the smell of Sassafras. I HATE the smell of Sassafras. In fact the smell just makes me want to throw up. There are not many smells that makes me feel sick, but that is one smell I can not stand. I was reminded of that tonight when Sheila and I went to Kroger's. As you know from an earlier post she has strep throat. We went to Kroger to buy the special "make me feel good" tea that we both enjoy when we have a sore throat. It's Lipton's decaf cinnamon apple tea. MMMMMM it is so good. It's like a mouth full of joy. (wait, I think that slogan is already in use by another company). any way we picked up the tea to put it in our cart. you know the carts that always has one wheel that does not turn, or squeaks the whole time you are shopping. well this time we picked the perfect cart. ahhh here I go off onto another tangent. so we put it in the cart and what does my eyes fix on. yep you guessed it Sassafras tea. I immediately told my wife of my dislike of that smell (which she has heard about a million times before) and she then reminded me quickly that yep she has heard this story before. One day I will remember that when I don't like something I am very vocal about it and the people that share my world with me also knows it because they get to hear it a million times (or more). and speaking of carts that squeak. We were in Target one night and we had the cart that squeaked to high heaven. A smarter person would have returned the cart immediately to find one that didn't make such an annoying noise. but as I said a smarter person would have returned it. We went about our shopping for what seemed to be hours until my wife got the bright idea (I'm not being mean about that because it was a great idea). We headed for the automotive department and located a can of WD-40 and did target and it's guests a huge favor. We oiled that squeaky wheel. thus proving the phrase the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Well it's now 12:45 and I am patiently waiting till 2 am to see if that atomic clock does it's job.

Blessings till I post again.

Hair Cut Plus

Don't forget to set those clocks back an hour tonight. If you are like me you'll be up at 2 am so you can see if that atomic clock will set it's self automatically. Yes it always does, but I still like to be awake to see it change. (okay I'm weird I admit it)

Today I got my hair cut. well actually all of them to be exact. After that I did alot of laps (little as possible) and then we went to HH Gregg and purchased a new TV for our bedroom. We got a 26 inch flat panel TV. Just to catch you up to speed, our house was hit by lightning about a month ago and we lost 3 TVs, 2 VCRs, DVD players. ect ect ect. you get the idea. well we are finally replacing items and we thought we would get a better TV for our bedroom. I needed a bigger TV since Mr. Magoo here needs things to be a bit bigger these days to see them.

not really much more to talk about tonight. I'm watching I love Lucy right now and will be hitting the bike again after finishing up tonight's blog. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to sit back and watch that new TV. oh yeah, we also purchased a DVD recorder / VHS player, but we turned around and took it back after getting it home. we discovered that it did not have the input to put your cable line in. turns out that they are no longer going to sell them since every thing is going digital in Feb 2009. Oh well. we will just have to keep looking.

and now you know the rest of the story.

Blessings till I post again.

TGIF

Friday has finally arrived. I always love Fridays because it marks the end of another week that I have survived the work week. Yes Monday is only a few days away, but that never stooped me before. Today went by fast. It was a bit cold out today so I did my walk indoors today.

My wife was feeling ill this morning and she went to the doctor. Turns out she has strep throat.
The good husband that I am I picked her up some soup that she likes at panera bread. I had taco bell which put me over my calories for the day so I'll be riding my bike like a crazy man tonight. I already did 8 miles and 5 at 5:00 this morning. I'll probably get in another 15 before midnight.

I love music (gospel is my favorite) I was listening to my ipod this morning and the song "if that isn't love" came on. I think I played it like 5 times. I tend to do that when I really like a song. but the words just spoke to me and I heard them so vibrantly today as if I had never heard that song a million times before. If that isn't love the ocean is dry, If that isn't love the sparrow can't fly. If that isn't love then heavens a myth........ just playing those words over and over in my mind really struck a cord in me this morning. For a moment I saw the world in a new light. Things didn't seem to bother me as much as they had before. I pray that I never loose that feeling that I had this morning. I also pray that if you never felt that way that you will.. and soon!

Blessings till I post again.

HELLO WORLD

HELLO WORLD....
Okay that was corny, but as you will soon find out that is the story of my life.

Anyone who knows me would say that I am a complicated creature. I have never been one to completely let people into my world so to speak. My wife would probably say amen to that because she would attest that to get me to open up is a miracle in itself.

In the days to come I'll "try" to open up a bit and let you into my mind and my daily life. Don't be surprised if my blogs are few and far between. It's not that I don't have time to blog or the desire, but more on the side of my forgetfulness. I'm not completly forgetful, but I have had my moments. I'll tell you about the time I forgot and left my wife at the store. but more about that later.

and now that you know just a little bit about me I will let the blogging begin/continue.

Today was a pretty much normal day for me. Well as normal as can be for me. I started off the day with a migraine. Got to work 45 mins early (nothing new there) and ran into a paper towl holder in the bathroom. the paper towel holder seems to be doing fine and should make a full recovery. I somehow ened up eating only 1200 calories today which is 300 less than my goal but I'll try to make up for that tomorrow. I also started doing crunches 3 weeks ago and as of tonight I have finally made it to 130 a night. I think I may try to set my goal to 500 a night and no more than that. I'll try not to bore you with the details of my daily workouts. I have been told that I have become obsessed with weight loss. I'll admit a little bit but not whole heartedly. To date I have lost 103 lbs and I think I am almost to my goal. I'm going to leave off here tonight because As you can probably tell by now I am rambling. I tend to go off on tangets so instead of doing that I will wish you all a good night and try not to make it a long time before my next post.