Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit early in the AM, so far I'm the only one who has recovered from a losing battle with the sandman and am up early collecting my thoughts for the day. I'm up watching some movie on HBO, I think it is Club Dread.

I got a real good nights sleep and Michelle needing some rest is still in there sleeping. I don't think she got up too many time through the night as her laptop is sitting right where I left it.

This afternoon we'll be at KDKA studios to tape the 2013 edition of Steelers trivia. We played in 2008 and never trailed once the entire series and won the whole thing. In 2007 my team mates set the single show record but didn't win the tournament.

This year was supposed to be 18 returning Champions going at it, but we were the only Champions to enter for this year and we are more or less a fill in so they can get their 18 teams that are needed. With that being said, we have not studied, reviewed old shows or built a database of questions that could be asked. In 2008, it was given that we were walking away with it, this year we really don't have any plans to make it back to the second day of taping but you never know. Randy Page is a walking ball of sports knowledge, and Chris is no slacker. It could very well two trips to KDKA studios this weekend with those guys. We are scheduled to tape at 4:00, so unlike last time when we were the first show taped, we'll be the last show taped today. Meaning this will appear in the sixth week.

Have a great day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

I'm off again today, going to be doing a little running around and shopping as well as a few other things.

Tomorrow we will be taping the Steelers Trivia in Pittsburgh, I hope the other guys are ready because I really haven't studied much of anything, but Randy Page was the man last time for our team. Hopefully he will be up to his normal self and ready. We won this competition the last time, but neither Chris nor I am that confident this time. We'll have to wait and see. We were "Poised to Strike" last time, but I guess we are the only returning Champions so they are changing our name and retiring the Championship name. I think we are the Fat Polamalu's this time around.

Have a great day.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through the thousands of digital pictures that I have stored on my computer. Little lost moments of time captured in an image for eternity. Sometimes it is pretty easy to find that special pic, you know what you're going to use before you even start looking and sometimes it's not so easy. The one thing it always is however is a whole lot of fun for me.

This weeks picture is a picture that hangs in my home to this day. This is my Grandfather on the left, Bill Addis in behind and they made up the Green Mountain Boys. The man to the right of the picture is Steve Shoals, the Hall of Fame Member who signed Elvis Presley to the RCA label, but that is another story.

Today is May 16th. 36 years ago Ellis Hall a man known to me as pappaw passed away. He was a very influential figure in my life, as he took over the role as my Dad and raised me when my own parents were experiencing some tough times.

Nine years ago, 27 years to the day after Grandpa Hall died, I fulfilled his wish for me when I graduated from West Virginian University.

Have a great day.

Hump Day

If you look up over that noon time hump, just on the other side of a photo flashback you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the distance.

Michelle brought work home with her again last night, meaning she was occupied and I had control of the remote. What was I watching? A great movie? No, the food network.

Something I did run across yesterday was a TV shown that really looked like something I could get into. The Blacklist will be coming to NBC on Mondays this fall. It was an ad for another video that I was watching and it really captured my attention. Maybe I'll watch one or two this fall, it's kind of Silence of the Lambs meets 24.

Other than that, just another boring day in our life, no excitement today, which I guess is a good thing.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is once again in our rear view mirrors and we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, I still can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* Day 1,887 since I first went out on a date with my wife, she hasn't killed me yet so I must be doing something right.

* 1,110 days ago I got down on one knee and proposed marriage, lucky for me she said yes rather than knock me upside the head,

* 647 days ago in front of our closest friends and family, we exchanged our wedding vows.

* There are only 225 more shopping days left until Christmas, get with it.

* 117 more days until the cruise, I'm ready for it and I think Michelle is as well. I'm ready to do some snorkeling.

* 65 more days until we see Jimmy Buffett in Pittsburgh.

* 40 days until we see Kenny Chesney, although we will no where near as close as my niece Amy was years ago when she saw it at Jamboree in the Hills.

* 39 days until SUMMERTIME!!!!

* 32 more days until we head north to see Peter Frampton.

* It was nice to look through old pictures this weekend, I'm suggesting a scanning party when we work as a team to get as many scanned as we can and organized for future generations.

* I have to start studying for Steelers Trivia, we tape our first round match this Saturday afternoon at KDKA studios. We won it the last time we did this, but not as confident this time. I have one team mate that is just a walking ball of knowledge.

* Michelle brought some work home last night and worked from home for a few hours. She's trying to get caught up on a few things.

* What is up with all of this cold weather in mid May? Come on, I want to plant my garden, hurry up and make this cold front pass. I looked at a heat map yesterday and it was in the 80's in North Dakota and in the low 30's in Minnesota. What's up with that?

* Hi ho hi ho

Happy Birthday George Hall Sr

It will be 14 years this summer since you left us, a time that was way too early because we did not get enough time to spend with you. You were only 54 years old, when you passed in 1999. Today we would have been celebrating your 68th birthday.

I'm sure that there would have been one of those infamous George Hall cookouts, all while you trying to ignore the fact that is was your birthday.

The cookouts of yesteryear, the ones that are still spoke about 25 years later that you hosted for not only the family but the extended family as well. You just liked being around your family, your kids and your grand kids whose souls you have touched even to this day. I was at Terri's yesterday looking over some old pictures as Amy was scanning them. I remembered your birthday was close to Mothers Day, but Val was the one who reminded us all that your birthday was today. Even more evidence of the people you have touched.

If I could have one with today, it would be to tell you Happy Birthday, Thank You for all you have done for us and we miss you.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Monday Morning

All good things must come to an end, and that includes the fun filled weekends that we have. So it is time to stick our noses back on the grindstone for another week of work.

I stopped over and spent the day with my Mother yesterday as Michelle went back home and spent time with hers. Mom and I drove down to Terri's who was going through a number of pictures with the kids and grandkids. Amy started to put an album up on Facebook  of the scans.

It was a lot of fun to spend some time with a lot of very special people in my life. We were all looking through a tub of pictures and reflecting upon a lot of them. It's memories like yesterday that I think I hold more dear than the actual pictures. It was a chance to relive lost moments in time with the people who were either involved or someone who could explain something about the picture.

That was yesterday, not it's time to get back to work.

Hi ho hi ho

Happy Mothers Day

Here I am up early again, as I am every morning and collecting my thoughts for the day. Michelle woke up about the same time I did, but has went back to once again lay down and go back to sleep. Sandman really got to her I suppose. I'm up watching Head Office  on HBO, a movie I used to love back in the 80's but haven;t seen since.

I would like to take this opportunity out and wish all of the Mothers in the World a very Happy Mother's Day today. Mother's Day  is a very special holiday in North Central West Virginia, since it's origins start here with Anna Jarvis in Grafton West Virginia.

Speaking of Anna Jarvis and her home or birthplace, here is a picture of my wife, a Mother of two, at the home where this entire holiday started. We took a trip to Philipi a few years ago and we stopped by the Anna Jarvis House just outside of Grafton. So we stopped and grabbed a few pictures, this one in particular of the porch and a few of the tools that were used at time when she lived there.

There is also a shrine in downtown Grafton to commemorate that this was the birthplace of this wonderful holiday.

I am fortunate to have a number of people in my life who are either my Mother or Mother figures. One of which was my grandmother who left us in 1980, but will always be remembered. There is my Mom who I will visit sometime today, there is Jean and Nana who we stopped by for a visit yesterday, there is Michelle's Mom and Grandmother who both walked her down the isle on our wedding day. Then I can't forget my wonderful wife as she is a Mother of two herself.

We're going to do our normal grocery shopping here this morning and then we may both go say hello to my Mother, then Michelle is heading up north to visit her family for the day. There will be bouquets of roses to go all around for six wonderful women in my life today.

I would also like to extend a very Happy Mother's Day to my Sisters, wonderful Mother's their own right and to my nieces who are wonderful  Mother's as well. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there, it's you that keep us in line.