Christmas Simon Milestone, Texting again

Hope you had a GREAT Christmas. Mine was Christmas. It's pretty much the same every year. Mom-In-Law, Dad-In-Law, Sis-In-Law, Neice and my Sister and Bro-In-Law all came down to our house. My Sis/Bro-in-law came later after dinner for a quick visit. It was nice to see them again.

We tried a new recipe for shrimp this year. Here it is....and it's AMAZING!!!

Peel and de-poop jumbo shrimp. Spray butter all over them. Little bit of sea salt, little bit of crushed pepper, sprinkle of old bay seasoning. Wrap them little buggers in a half a slice of uncooked bacon...stick them on a skewer..fire up the grill and cook away.

They were out of this world. We'll be making them "just because" next time. :)

Dinner was good as usual. Ham, potatoes, asparagus, and of course Canoli's for dessert.

Santa was good to all of us, even though I already had everything I wanted.

But the milestone of the holiday was the little man, Simon. He's starting to STAY sitting up all by himself, and he had a blast with his new "O" ball toy.


The milestone was...he fell asleep right where he sat playing...all by himself. You see, usually, we rock him, or put him in his crib, and THEN he'll fall asleep and nap. Here, he did it all on his own. Fell right over and, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.


What a cutie!

Santa was REAL good to him.




Remember this post?
My pet peeve regarding text messaging? My rant on the Facebook thing? Here's another little pet peeve that just kinda pushed me a little bit more.
On Christmas, I received over 20 text messages all saying the same thing: "Merry Christmas". And that's it. Some even looked like this: "FWD: Merry Christmas!" Really? Really? Really, you can't call and wish someone a Merry Christmas anymore? You can't call just to say, "Hi, hope your day is great?" I did. I called a LOT of people that day just to say "Merry Christmas". I did get ONE phone call from a friend. Just one. I answered the phone, "Merry Christmas Jim!" And his response was, "that's why I was calling you my friend!" And we chatted for about 1 minute. Thank you for calling Jim!!!!

Has our society become so unsociable, that we're now sending Christmas wishes via text messaging? Are we THAT unfriendly? Hehehehe, maybe if I had a Facebook account, I could have gotten the message there.

Ok, pet peeve rant over. And if I didn't call you on Christmas....Merry Christmas!!!! (I'm such a hipocryte lol)

Let's end this with the PERFECT way to wake up on Christmas morning......


Next year he'll be jumping up and down on the bed screaming for us to wake up because SANTA CAME!!!!!

If I don't talk to you before next week, (or call you on Saturday)..Happy New Year!!!

Find something to be grateful for! I did.

Good tidings

This brought a tear to my eye. I almost lost it when the Mom grabbed her child's hand to hold it. Just look at the smiles on these faces. Look at the joy brought into their lives by something as simple as this.


Merry Christmas!!!

Absolutley Nuttin

I have written much because, well, not much has been happening.

Simon is getting bigger each day. He's eating baby cereal (mixed with milk of course) as well as his normal supply of milk.

He has a chest cold. He smiles a LOT. He's a happy baby.



Right around Thanksgiving, we had a party at the house, and of course, my two oldest friends came by. They brought their kids with them, and all the kids wanted to do was sit in my boat and 'pretend' they were on the water. Ah....the future!




Other than that, just doing what we gotta do for Christmas (decorate, shop, spend waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money, etc.)

These cold temperatures are sure a welcome for me (and a handful of friends), because ice fishing time is almost here. I'm predicting (if all stays the same), we'll be on the ice on 12/19/10.

I haven't hit the Powerball yet, so I still have to come to work 6 out of the 7 days a week.

Mindy and I borrowed my Mother-In-Law's WII, and we are having a blast playing it (when we have time). The first night we played so much, my body ached the next day. I'm soooooooo out of shape.

I picked up many more hours on the air on Magic 93 coming up, so as you're enjoying the Magic of Christmas, you can attempt to enjoy my sparkling personality. HAHAHAHA. That's funny. Oh, and "NO", I won't play Dominick the Donkey for you! And I won't play the "Christmas Shoes" song either. I like to be HAPPY around Christmas. If those two songs are already scheduled to play, I turn the speakers down in the studio. I'm going to break disc jockey rule here by saying.....I really really really HATE those two songs. If I NEVER heard them again, it would be too soon. BUT, if they are scheduled, they get played. But I don't have to listen to them. :)

Thanks for reading. Find something to be grateful for. I found two things today that made me smile.

If I don't write before the end of the month, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!!

Best-Lookin' Baby

Of course he is. The best-looking kid in the whole wide world (and I'm only a little biased).

After his bath the other night, dancing with Mommy and Daddy to Barry White.

And he's getting so big. He's in his high chair already. Granted, he'll only sit there for about an hour before he gets bored and wants to be walked around, but he's still sitting there.

Looks like we'll be starting him on baby cereal this week sometime. I'm excited because I FINALLY get a chance to be part of the eating process.
They grow up so fast. :)

Thank Goodness It's Over

Today is election day. I'm sooooo grateful it's over. I am so SICK AND TIRED of the political TV/Radio commercials. Is it just me, or have they been overloading the airwaves this election? I'm not sick of them because there are a ton of them.....I'm sick of them because I have NO IDEA WHAT POLITICIAN IS GOING TO WHAT FOR US!!!!! Understand that? I have not heard or seen one stinking POSITIVE commercial. Not a one. All they do is bash their opponent. "He did this in his past, and he did this in his past......" OK, what are YOU going to do in the future? It's really unbelievable. Voting today is not all about voting for the best candidate, it's all about voting for the lesser of two evils. I firmly believe nothing good will come of this. Just look at the past with all the Luzerne County scandals, and law breakers, and corruption. And the funny thing is, we voted these people in. Why? Because they were the lesser of two evils. Will a candidate in the future, please please please please please tell me something GOOD about what you're going to do? Will a future candidate please please please give me some hope, and some positive reinforcement to live in Northeast PA? Why should I vote for YOU?!?!?! Leave the other guy out of it. If a candidate for, say, County Controller, told me nothing about the other opponents, and just sent the message of HIM/HER, and what THEY WILL DO WHEN THEY GET ELECTED......I'd write them in for the Presidency!
It's funny, I was talking with a couple people about this exact situation, and unless you pay real close attention to the commercials......we have no idea who is running for what position. They are so focused on BASHING the other guy, they don't even say what office they want to hold until the very end..."Paid for by I'm Not Full Of Baloney for Governor". Ha.

I've got just one message to any politician that wants to run his/her election campaign this way in the future....Remember the Golden Rule! And that's NOT whoever has the gold makes the rules. Realize the image you've created. Your "Brand" if you will during this advertising campaign. Whoever wins whatever today, I still don't know what you're going to do, I still don't know what you ran for, and you know what.......I DON'T CARE!!!!! What comes around, goes around!


On a lighter note...Simon is doing great, he's got his first cold, and it stinks. But we're doing what we gotta do.

It's that time between regular fishing, and ice fishing, plus it's too cold to ride the bike, so I'm chomping at the bit on weekends. Maybe I'll do more GeoCaching until the ice gets here.

Anyway, sorry it took so long to update here, but I've been working a lot more (daycare ain't cheap ya know), and when I have 5 minutes, I just want to sit and breath. Meditate.

Talk more with you soon.

Find something to be grateful for...I'm grateful the elections are OVER!

Thanks for reading.

ThunderBusters

Saw this the other day. I think it's brilliant.

Confusion

Is it just me, or does this NOT make sense.

Bottom left-hand corner of the back of the book.

BTW...it was 33° F this morning. The freeze will be here before we know it.....and that means ICE FISHING!!! Whooo Hooo!

Grill Envy

It is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. My sister-in-law......smart cookie that she is.....waited until the END of the season to get herself a new grill for her back deck.

A $300 grill she got for HALF price. GOOD JOB NICK!!!!!!

Of course, being the only one in the family that owns a pick-up truck, I was nominated to go pick it up and deliver it to her house. Another of course, it's too heavy to put together for just one person, and I don't think her 11 year old daughter would be strong enough to help soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo........I stuck around the house for the assembly. I'm glad I did......but man oh man I AM JEALOUS.

You see, I love grilling. Steaks. Ribs. Chicken. Bacon. Soup. Fish. Bananas. Water. If I can figure a way to get it on the grill and keep it there, I'm grilling it. I grill all year long. If I can get to the grill, it's getting fired up and I'm cooking SOMETHING! And just looking at Nick's new grill, all 5 burners, a side burner, stainless steel outer shell, under firebox storage, etc. made me want one of my own. But MY grill still works fine, and it's seasoned. :)

If you love grilling as much as I do, then you'll drool over what I'm about to show you. If you don't, then just enjoy the three shots.......

Ladies and gentlemen...I present to you one of the most beautiful grills I've ever seen...

What a lucky grill....I mean girl! LOL.

Quick Updates and Misc Stuff

Went to the Bloomsburg Fair on Sunday. It was JAMMED with people. I also have come to the realization that whenever the family is around together, I canNOT get near my Son. LOL. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining what-so-ever.....I think it's a beautiful thing how much they love him. And I don't have to change a poopy diaper.


This is the honest-to-God view of what I saw when my wife was changing him and I "tried" to help. I was physically pushed out of the way.


My niece was also INSIDE the car helping from that angle. I couldn't even get in there. Beautiful!


My wife made some killer burgers the other night. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix, an egg, and some Italian Style Bread Crumbs. I, in turn, grilled them, grilled some bacon, melted BLEU CHEESE (not American) on them, and they were out of this world!!!


Oh, and Simon was at his FIRST breakfast before we went to the fair at our local restaurant. I can't wait until he knows how to use utensils. :)



So, other than that, nothing really too cool to write about. I just thought I'd share those little things. Because those little things to me are what make my life wonderful!

Hope to talk with you soon. Thanks for reading.

No Title....I'm not feeling creative

I know, I know. It's been awhile since a post has happened. I'm tired. Gimmie a break. :)

I still don't know what to write. Not really much has happened lately that's super interesting. Well, that's not quite true......some of the things that have happened I canNOT write here. If you really want to know, call me, or drop me an email. ;)

Let's go back a couple weeks. Labor Day weekend I believe it was, some family members were in town and were having a get together to have all the new children meet, and for the grown-ups to 'catch up'. Mindy and I had all intentions of going, but while I was on the air that Saturday morning, something decided to get into my stomach, and, well, I won't go into detail here. Needless to say, we couldn't make it up to Scranton that day for the reunion. I don't think I would have made it that far in the car.
I feel bad because they were all looking forward to ALL of us getting together. They even made a "welcome to the world" cake for all the kids.

Again, if my family is reading this...my apologies. God had other plans for me that day I guess.

This past Saturday, 9/18/10, a group of friends of mine and Mindy and Simon all went to those twin bridges in Forks, PA for a picnic. Remember this?

We had a BLAST. So much food, like homemade chicken wings (garlic & honey), potato salad, cheezeburgers, hotdogs, and of course, I fired up one of the charcoal grills and cooked up about ten million bbq spare ribs.

Simon actually had a good time too. He LOVED the attention he got from everyone.






We had a bocci (sp?) ball tournament, on uneven ground, with holes, and I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.

On a different note.....I was on my bike Tuesday, and had to pull over because I noticed this:

Since the beginning of May, I've traveled 3000 miles on my bike. Wow. The cool thing, there's still MUCH MORE riding this season before I have to lock her up in the barn for the winter.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. Work is starting to pick up a LOT, so I better stop slacking and get back to it. Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening to Magic 93.

Find something to be grateful for today......even if it's just that you're verticle, above the grass, and still sucking wind.

What It Is!!

I don't know. I've just been kind of 'existing' lately. Up one day, down the next day. I don't even know what to write/blog/share etc. So, random time.

Today (Wed 9/1/10) is Simon's second day of daycare. He's handling it well. I'm handling it well (except for the $$ part...ugh, it's a second mortgage)....but my wife is NOT handling it well. I can understand too. She's been with him 24/7 for 2 and a half months. It's hard to have some 'stranger' take care of him all day. But, as with everything, time will help the hurt. (And so will this face when we pick him up at the end of the day)

Summer is almost over. And I'm thrilled about this. I LOVE autumn. The crispness. The colors. The smells. Plus that means one season closer to ice fishing. Yeah, I know, I need help.

It seems like I'm constantly going going going going going going. Get up, go to work, come home, help this one move, take out the garbage, cut the grass, clean this, pay that, go to bed. Get up, go to work, come home, change this diaper, feed the fish, cook dinner, etc. etc. etc. I cannot think of a day where there was absolutely NOTHING going on at that moment. I guess it's a good thing though, because if there was nothing going on, the Earth either will have been demolished, or I'd get up in my head, start thinking, and end up demolishing the Earth. Ha. At least in my own mind. Uh oh, getting in my head. Gotta get out of it. Time for a random, get out of my head, distraction.






OK, that's much better.



I'm trying to ride my motorcycle more. One, because it's fun. Two, because it saves on gas. I get GREAT gas mileage. But it's weird, because in the morning, it's freezing cold, so I layer up, and in the afternoon, it's bloody hot. And I don't have a LOT of room in my saddlebags for all the clothes I wore in the morning. So is it better to be chilly in the morning, or sweating to death in the afternoon? I vote for chilly in the morning. It keeps me awake (which is always a good thing on a bike), and more alert.

What kind of extra jobs can I do on the side to get a couple extra bucks, so we don't have to worry about Simon and daycare?

Our company here just told us we're not allowed to use Firefox anymore as our browser. We have to use IE. It's going to take me a long while to get used to using it. I don't like it. I never did. But, they sign my paychecks sooooooooooo.......




Oh well, I guess it's time to get back to work. I'm going to try and find some things to be grateful for today. I've been having a hard time having the gratitude just POP into my head. I need to make a conscience effort to do it. So, I'm grateful I have 10 fingers to be able to type all this out. That I have a job. That I have a health child. That I have a wonderful wife who's SuperMom! And many other things that I don't have time to type. Hopefully, you can find some gratitude today....and if it just POPS into your head....then I'm grateful you've got that today! Have a great Wednesday...thanks for reading, and thanks for listening to Magic 93.

Birthday, Bike Ride, Trout Fishin'

So I just turned 40. Happy Birthday to me. Whoopdeedoo! Anyway....

I had a couple days off work (Mon/Tues), so I had some things planned. Actually, I had things planned all weekend long AND on my b-day. Here's how it all went down:

Friday at work.....had to sneak out to a Doctor's appointment. I HATE going to the Doctor's, for the simple fact this guy will say things, and I'll end up walking out feeling like I'm going to die in 6 months (God forbid). Simple things like, "you're almost 40, you are NOT healthy!" I'm not? I feel fine! "Listen, you need to make sure you do activities that lower your stress level. Go fishing. Ride your motorcycle. But make sure you get exercise. Don't eat this. Eat that. Don't drink this. Drink that. I want you to now start aerobic exercise too." WHEN AM I GOING TO DO ALL THIS STUFF AND WORK, AND RAISE SIMON, AND SLEEP? "You're overweight!" By 15 pounds. 15 pounds. "And you're ugly" is what I FELT like saying to him. But I didn't.
So I had this thing on my arm that looked like a burn, and I asked him what it was, he referred me to a Dermatologist. That's later in this story.
Needless to say, in 3 weeks, I have to have TONS of blood work done, a urinalysis, and I have to monitor my blood pressure daily....THEN go back to him so he can tell me how much I suck at taking care of myself. All this PLUS managing stress, eating right, exercise, aerobic crap, raise my son, sleep, work, pay bills etc. I'm stressed just TRYING to be healthy.

Saturday morning, I'm not on the air 6-10, but 10-2. No big deal. Afterwards, some friends came over the house to visit (see the baby), eat some MEAT on the grill and hang out. Around 7:30PM I headed up to Lake Winola to try a new kind of fishing. Hey, I HAVE to go fishing to lower my stress, remember? :)
It was a VERY interesting fishing trip because we targeted trout. This is a fish I don't really know about, so it was all new to me.....and I really enjoyed it! I got home around 2:30AM, cleaned the fish I brought home (yea, we caught trout....BIG rainbow trout), and went to bed.

Sunday was nice. I found a recipe online on how to cook trout, made it up, stuck the prepared fish back in the fridge and Mindy and I (and Simon) went grocery shopping. WHY DO I ALWAYS DO THIS TO MYSELF? Why do I insist on going grocery shopping on a Sunday? EVERYONE goes grocery shopping on Sunday, so it's pure mayhem at the store. I'm a moron!!
When we got home, I cooked up the trout and they were delicious!!!!! If you want the recipe, just drop me a line and I'll "hook" you up with it. Ha (that was corny).

Now on Monday, I have the day off. Mindy, Simon and I went to look at a daycare center for when Mindy goes back to work. These things are SOOOOOOOOOO expensive. It's a 2nd mortgage payment. I'm NOT exaggerating either. We stopped by the radio station to introduce everyone to Simon, then went home. We did some stuff around the house and more or less just chilled on Monday. Tuesday (my birthday), I had a motorcycle ride planned with my friend Darren. Our plan was to go Bushkill Falls, via the Delaware Water Gap. But FIRST, I have to go to Scranton to see the Dermatologist regarding those things on my arm/wrist. Darren was nice enough to suggest we ride the bikes up there, then just take off from there since my appointment was first thing in the morning. So we get up there (surprisingly finding a parking spot in downtown Scranton at 9:15am), I fill out all the necessary paperwork, and in the back I go. Quick side-note...I LOVE being the first appointment of the day. I walked in there at 9:20, and I was back on my bike by 9:45. That rocks.
In a nutshell, the thing on my arm (2 of them actually) are some pre-cancerous skin thing from too much sun exposure growing up, nothing to be alarmed about BUT make sure I use sun-block from here on out because they might become cancerous etc etc etc. So let's see......Eat better, drink more water, wear sunscreen, watch what you eat because of the high blood pressure and stomach issues, exercise, do aerobic exercise, go fishing/bike riding to lower stress, work more to make more money to pay the hospital bills (and MY Dr bills), sleep better, monitor blood pressure, lose weight.......AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Turning 40 sucks!!!!
Back to the Dermatologist appointment....he burned (froze) those things off with liquid nitrogen. It did NOT feel nice.
----------------WARNING: GROSS PICTURE TO FOLLOW---------------------


That's them burned. They blistered up, and I'm still waiting for them to heal. Away we go on our ride.....


First stop....Lake Wallenpaupack. Don't forget now, we don't ride on highways(on purpose). All back roads.
It was nice. I've been there a million times, but never on a motorcycle. Route 590 through Hamlin was a joy of a ride! Now I'll follow Darren until we get to Bushkill Falls. A few hours later, we did.
There are no pictures of the falls, because they were charging you TEN BUCKS to walk on the trails. Boy oh boy, do we take-for-granted the hiking trails we have around here that are FREE!!!! TEN BUCKS!!! Wow. We hung out here for awhile and decided to take Route 209S (business road) to 115N, then Bald Mountain road back home. 209S turned into Route 80 HIGHWAY!!!!!! We did NOT know this. And to add insult to injury.....it was a highway with MILLED PAVEMENT! Motorcycles do NOT ride well on milled pavement. God was with us that moment, because we only stayed on there for about 4 miles. We finally got off that road, back on 209S, ended up in Brodheadsville, and finally got on 115.
All-in-all, it was a wonderful day (minus the scary, messed up pavement, on the highway). About 200 total miles were put on my bike, and Darren's company was appreciated, as usual!

Wednesday, back to work, more dental work (fillings, scraping, cuttings..ugh) and back to the grind.

So it's now Friday, I'm broadcasting live from Bo Brother's at PNC Field this afternoon for Happy Hour, then back on the air tomorrow AM 6-10. What a wild few days. I can't wait to see what life brings me NEXT week with another night fishing trip and Tuesday visit to Knobel's!!!!

Have a GREAT weekend (try at least lol), find something to be grateful for, and maybe I'll see you this afternoon at Bo Brother's.

Friday the 13th Part Deux

Last Friday the 13th, (Feb of `09 I think), I did a "random thoughts" post. So here are 13 MORE random thoughts for THIS Friday the 13th.

1. I still hate American Idol. (And all reality shows)

2. *sarcasm here...I can't wait to hear what my Doctor will yell at me about this afternoon.

3. I hope my friend Jeanne is OK. She has bone/breast cancer and is in Philadelphia for treatment. They gave her 4-6 years to live, I hope she proves them wrong and lives longer.

4. I think my son's first word will be "Up". Or "Light". I hope it's NOT "Mom", or "Dad". That's too cliche.

5. Why is coming up with "random" thoughts so difficult?

6. I need to dust my work desk.

7. I'm off work Monday and Tuesday. I hope those 2 days go by nice and slow.

8. My other friend Jesse just lost his job yesterday. I KNOW it will all work out the way it's supposed to for him. I just pray he gets through this rough patch easily.

9. I have heartburn.......again.

10. I REALLY HATE the word "revision".

11. It's hard to believe I'll be 40 years old soon. I only feel 39. :)

12. Maybe this weekend, we'll watch the remake of Friday the 13th.....finally.

13. I got a Powerball ticket this morning. I'm backwards, so maybe with it being Friday the 13th, I'll have some luck.

Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy Friday the 13th. Have some gratitude. Pray for Jeanne for her please.

Love You Too

Love you too Kiddo!!!!!

Weekend was Weird

What an ODD weekend. Some good odd, but most BAD odd. It was like the weird fairies got together and said, "hey, this Jenkins fella hasn't had anything odd happen to him in awhile, let's overload his weekend."

It started Friday evening. I wasn't home. I kind of wished I was to see this, but then again, maybe not. A bear went through our yard. I don't live in the woods. I live in a residential neighborhood, and a black bear decided to take a detour through our yard. No one in my house saw it either. But ALL THE NEIGHBORS DID!!!!

Saturday morning, up at 4AM. This time, not to work on Magic 93, but to go fishing. My friend and his wife from out of town came up to spend the weekend (and to meet Simon), so Chris and I went fishing Saturday morning. As we got to the campsite where the boat is, we noticed that the rain/wind storms we've had knocked down 3 trees.......RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE CAMPSITE. Not too bad to move them with some muscle if they weren't covered in poison ivy! Needless to say, we didn't attempt it. So, having a 4x4 pickup, I just drove through the woods into the campsite.

We got to the lake right as the sun was coming up, and it was beautiful.
The water temp was obviously MUCH warmer than the air temp, so the fog was THICK. We dropped the boat in the water and Chris started to rig up his fishin' rod.
Once on the lake, we noticed how bad the weeds had grown. They were thicker than the fog. It was NOT easy fishing on this lake with all those weeds. Even using top-water lures, we caught more weeds than anything else. It was still beautiful though, and just being out there was nice......until.....

those thick weeds ended up burning up our trolling motor's high speeds. No high forward, no high reverse. So we went everywhere.....VERY SLOWLY. Slow enough I could click this picture without worrying about going in a different direction.
So after about 6 hours of slowly fishing, we only caught 3 fish. I got 2, and Chris got 1. Mind you, this lake is infamous for wearing out your arm from reeling the fish in. But I think, because it was too hot for the past umpteen weeks, the fish were NOT interested.

So off we go home. Tired, worn out from casting, not catching, and also from being up that early. I realized I HAD to cut my grass, and with a friend there, we could have it done in less than an hour. That is, if the lawn tractor cooperated. This tractor doesn't owe me anything. It's been around I think longer than me, and it's served its purpose wonderfully. It's old. It's rusty. The blades aren't even that sharp. But it still cuts grass, when it wants to. And Saturday, it really did not want to. The shoot that throws the grass is so rusty, that I hit a bump in the grass and it bent in, causing the blades to drive themselves into it, and it started smoking. I had to get a pair of pliers and bend a chunk of the shoot outwards so the blades would spin. Now the grass is thrown out, and UP to the right. Then all of a sudden, as I'm cutting the front part of the house, some BIG metal piece just falls off. I don't know where it goes, I don't know what it does, but it just fell off. The tractor kept cutting and moving, so I did as well! Grass is all cut, now for some minor maintenance on my motorcycle.

I just got myself a sissy bar for it so I wanted to put that on. That was the easy part. And the bike looks pretty cool too.
But recently, there has been terrible rattling going on at high speeds. I thought it was the headlight. So we put some foam rubber around the base. That wasn't it. Then I realized it was the windshield. So we took that apart, layered some foam rubber around the clamps, and FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL to put it back together, only to realize that's not it either. We still can't figure out where it's coming from. Oh well. I'll live with it.

We all decided we wanted to go for dinner Saturday night, and my sister-in-law agreed to come over and babysit while we went out. We ended up going up to Scranton. When we got to the restaurant, I had to use the little Disc Jockey's room. I went in, and as I was doing my thing, I ended up passing a kidney stone. AND NOT A LITTLE ONE. This thing was at least 3/4 of inch big. It scared the pants off me. Now I'm worried, because it's been YEARS since I've had any issues in the kidney department. Doctor's appointment is scheduled for 2 weeks anyway. Ugh.

To add insult to injury (notice I didn't tell you the name of the restaurant?), the food, the service and the check was AWFUL!!!!!! It was the absolute WORST dining experience of my life. Really. It was THAT bad. The waiter couldn't speak English that well (and it's an American restaurant), so it was difficult to understand him, plus he said, "uh-kews me?" after everything we said. I guess he couldn't understand us either. The food was terrible. The worst!! I would rather get a hunger headache than eat there again. I really wish I could tell you the name of it. But........well, you know. I can't due to possible advertising. But oh my gosh......my steak was like shoe leather. Mindy's lobster was under a heat lamp for God knows how long, and the seafood crepes Kim had, the consistency was like lumpy mashed potatoes wrapped in a thin piece of pasta. Chris got some seafood soup, and THEY LEFT THE LOBSTER TAIL SHELLS IN IT! When the waiter brought the food, he brought one plate at a time from the kitchen, and when he put Chris's broccoli down, he practically threw it at him. It almost landed in his lap. Unreal. I will NEVER eat there ever again. Which is sad, because it used to be one of the finest dining establishments in Scranton. As a matter of fact, Mindy and my first date was there. Oh well.

Remember how I said I was up at 4AM? We're now home after a terrible dinner, I'm still aching from the stone, and over tired. I went up to bed around 11:30PM....and could not fall asleep. I was up until around 2AM. I just couldn't sleep. Luckily I did fall asleep. And Sunday was a MUCH better day. Nothing weird happened Sunday. Breakfast, Kim and Chris left, lunch, I went for a small bike ride, dinner (PERFECT steak on the grill btw), and Mindy and I went to bed at a reasonable time.....and slept. And so did Simon. Thank you Simon!!!!

All-in-all, nothing HUGE bad happened, but this is a weekend I don't think I'll forget too quickly. I just keep trying to remember the views on the lake.
Good friends, good fishing (not catching, but fishing), good bike ride, good weather, and Simon sleeping!
Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening to Magic 93. Be grateful for something today and you'll be OK!!!

Boulder Field, Baby Update

It's Monday (7/26), and I want to share with you this past weekend.

My friend Darren and I took another bike ride on Saturday to Hickory Run State Park. I think we're going to attempt to ride our bikes to every State Park within a 100 mile vicinity this year. We've already gone to Francis Slocum, World's End, Rickett's Glen, and Moon Lake. And this past weekend, Hickory Run. That's our goal at least. Our plan. But life will probably get in the way. LOL.

So we ventured out around 11 Saturday morning, and went the way of Jumper Road/Suscon Road/Bald Mountain, to 115, and then some back roads I have no clue where. I like to follow Darren on the bike. That's because I have NO sense of direction. Really. None. I don't know North from South, Up from Down. I get lost in parking lots. I'M NOT JOKING. I have a hard time finding my way out of parking lots. I don't know why I'm like this. I just am.
Our first quick stop was at the "duble-wa". I LOVE WAWA. I used to eat there 4 times a week when I worked in Allentown/Bethlehem. Their Iced-Tea is scrumptious. Plus, it was 168 degrees on Saturday, so we needed to stay hydrated. Gottahavawawa!!!!!

Then it was down back roads until we got to Hickory Run State Park.



My apologies for the pictures, these things were behind glass, so it made it hard to photograph.

Our one and only goal was to see the landmark, "Boulder Field". It was a sight.
Rocks galore. They went on and on and on and on. What I also remember most of this, was that it was a 3 mile dirt road to get to it. Dirt, and gravel. And not that thick gravel, the thin little pebbles. Millions of them. NOT AN EASY ROAD TO RIDE ON ON A MOTORCYCLE!!!!!

But we took our time, and made it in without dropping the bikes. Thank God.

Rock and roll!!!


We then had to take that dirt/gravel road BACK out. No sweat. Through Jim Thorpe to Hazleton, then backroads home. All in all, the trip was around 180 miles (give or take). It was a nice day. Nice views, and not too too hot.....until we stopped moving. LOL.

So that was Saturday.

Sunday (yesterday) was more or less a day of house stuff, spending time with the new Mom, and my kid. Yesterday he was in a foul mood. Hardly slept throughout the day. I was calling him "cranky pants" all day. (And a few other choice words :))
Simon is doing great though. He's getting his baby fat, he can see things clearer now, and God has given the poop even more "aroma". :)
And here he is after a good feeding. He gets "milk drunk". It's hysterical.

So that's about it. Nothing too spectacular. Nothing great, nothing bad. Just an average weekend.

Here's a little video I saw this morning that I literally laughed out loud at. I don't know why I find this so funny, I just do. Maybe you'll enjoy it too. Maybe not.




Have a great Monday. Find something to be grateful for, and everything will be OK.