Sunday Morning Rambling

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I'm the first one to semi-recover from a losing battle with the Sandman last night. I'm semi-awake and contemplating on going back to my nice warm bed after I write this and sleep a little bit more. TV's not even on and I just woke up to use the restroom and catch some college football scores from last night.

Well we got my Mom's tree set up yesterday and all decorated. Some of the customized bulbs for 2014 have been added, we're just now waiting on the rest of them, but people can add them at their own convenience between now and Christmas. The tree itself is set up and ready for the 2014 season.

Michelle and I also purchased our tree yesterday, it's still sitting outside letting the branches fully get ready before we bring it in probably today. We have all of our decorations ready to go and sitting in a spare bedroom, but that is as far as we have gotten. I bought Michelle a cute little snowglobe yesterday, it plays a variety of Christmas Music as well. She fell in love with it, so I grabbed it for her.

Normal shopping day for us, maybe bringing the tree in and moving a few things around to set it up for 2014. Nothing special planned other than maybe watching the Steelers this afternoon.

Have a Great day.

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit once again in the early AM, I'm the first one to both lose and recover from a losing battle with that Dreaded Sandman last night. I'm up early watching Clerks 2 on some mid tier channel and surfing the net collecting my thoughts.

Today will be a Christmas Tree kind of a day. I think we are going to go and pick up ours this morning and set it up outside. We won't be decorating it until later, but we'll open it up and let the branches spread out.

This afternoon we will be heading out to Mom's and setting up her 2014 Tree. We also need to make our 2014 customized bulb to add to it for this year, I'm kind of excited to set up this wonderful tree for them for yet another season to enjoy. I think Christmas Trees add so much life to a household, being single all of those years I never had one, I guess I have come to really appreciate their beauty thanks to my wonderful wife.

If you're looking for a little WVU Sports today, the Football team is at Iowa State to take them on at noon and the basketball team plays at home this evening at I think 7:00 PM.

Have a Great Day

Big Ole Hairy Black 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 Black Friday shopping Friday.

Well last year Michelle did Black Friday shopping, this year however we're both avoiding it like the plague and will both be working today closing out the work week after a great Thanksgiving Day feast with her family yesterday.

There is no more football in Monongalia County this season as Clay Battelle travels to #1 seed St. Mary's tomorrow afternoon. If they win there they advance to the State Championship game in wheeling next weekend. University and Morgantown both have completed their seasons. WVU travels to Iowa State for their last regular season game of the season, they should be getting a bowl invite this year, but that won't be played here in Morgantown.

Going to set my Mom's Christmas Tree up tomorrow afternoon, somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00, this way they can start to enjoy it for the holiday season. Ours may be the following weekend, depending on how Michelle is feeling.

Have a great day, find some good deals and for those of us working today.

Hi ho hi ho

Happy Thanksgiving

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I hope your day is filled with feasting on food, family and fun for all to enjoy.

Michelle and I will be celebrating this holiday with her family at the Cassville Firehall where there will be an absolute feast a waiting on us as there is and has been every year since Michelle and I started dating.

Have a great day and gobble till you wobble on Turkey and don't forget for a few of you shopping crazed nutcases, it's Black Friday eve although I will be avoiding any commercial establishments like the plague tomorrow. I'm not a Black Friday kind of person.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through the pictures that I have. Little lost moments in time that were either captured with my camera, that I scanned or that I just simply flat out stole off of the internet. I like to select just one of those moments and write a little something about it, reflecting to a time gone by. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task and sometimes it's not that easy, it is however always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture was one that was long lost but just recovered last weekend. Jean had a couple of picture albums up in a closet from years ago. Pictures that many of us had not seen in some time or never before, to to me this was like finding the holy grail of pictures from my past.

I scanned a number of pictures this past weekend, so I had to select one (or two) to use for today. The picture I chose was one of my Dad at work just simply eating his lunch in the mines. He was a long time coal miner and he was a coal miner until the day that he passed away a little over just 15 short years ago.

On this Thanksgiving I am thankful that this man was my Father. I just wish he were around today to see all of his kids, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren. I think he would have been as thankful for us as we are to have been a part of his life.

How about a bonus pic??

Turkey Day Eve

Well that is two days down, now all we have to do is get today in and we can start preparing for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Tonight after work Michelle and I will head on over to the Cassville Firehall if she is up to it to help her Sister Chris and everyone else start to prepare for the Thanksgiving day feast tomorrow. There are turkey's to prepare, home made noodles to be made, potatoes to be peels, pies to be baked and that's just the start of the cooking.

We will also have tables and chairs to set up, serving trays to be brought out and set up as well as cover and decorate all of the tables for tomorrows festivities. There is a lot of work to do this evening both in and out of the kitchen and it is simply amazing and inspirational in how they all seem to come together and pull this off.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Happy Birthday Valarie Nicholson

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my beautiful niece Valarie a very Happy Birthday today.

Yes that is a picture of her, but that goes back at least one or two years to a time when she was a very young lady and a birthday party that my sister had thrown for her.

It's easy for me to remember Valarie's age as I am just a few days older than 20 years older than her, which would make this her first birthday (OK I lie).

I'm not sure of what her and Bobby's plans are for today, but I think I heard my sister Terri say that they will be going out Saturday night to celebrate.

Anyways, if you see Valarie today, make sure that you take a little time out and wish her a very Happy Birthday today.

Happy Birthday Val.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well that dreaded thing we call Monday is once again behind us and we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, still can't think of a better reason to do a tidbits.

* I have managed to be around this earth for 18,622 days now. I count my blessings every day that that number continues to grow.

* 3,845 days ago I fulfilled one of my lifetime dreams when I graduated from West Virginia University.

* It was 2,446 days ago that I had a chance to take a special lady out on a date. Pizza and a horrible movie, but we're still going strong.

* It was 1,670 days ago that I got down on one knee and proposed marriage to Michelle.

* We are on day 1,207 of marital bliss. I am a fortunate man that this wonderful and inspiration woman re-entered my life.

* I have about 6,215 days or so, give or take a few hundred here or there until I retire.

* In 254 more days, Michelle and I will celebrate our fourth Wedding Anniversary.

* In only 173 more days my niece Brittany will join me as an Alumnus of West Virginia University.

* There are 115 more days to go until Spring. That's still a long way to go and I'm ready for Spring to come back around already.

* I have 36 more days of writing content before my Goodbye 2014 blog posts. I usually take a few weeks to write that one, I should be starting it sometime in the very near future.

* There are 30 more shopping days left until Christmas with Black Friday looming just a few days away.

* I have 6 more days until my Birthday. =)

* This is my 3,858th blog that I have written for this blog in a little over a decade of blogging.

* Michelle made it back to work yesterday briefly, it was a little too much on her and she came home after a couple of hours as she was starting to get a little sick. She needs to take it easy and not over do it.

* I see everyone has their Christmas decorations out already, just a reminder that I am setting my Mom's tree up this Saturday afternoon between 4:00 and 6:00. It shouldn't take that long, just trying to give everyone a window of opportunity to place a bulb on this years tree when everyone can participate together.

* Have I ever mentioned that I Hate Snow? Not sure if I have ever mentioned that here before.

* Michelle found a neat little ap for her iPhone, she scans her receipts from grocery shopping and she gets money back for buying specific items. The name of the ap slips my mind, but I'm sure I'll be talking about it again.

* I've finally broken my weight plateau and am down a couple more pounds. I was a little over a month or so withing a 5 lb range that I have finally dropped below. I'm down 102.4 lbs since Christmas and 87.4 lbs since May 22nd when I had my first official weigh in. I've got a few more pounds to go until I hit my initial target that I set this spring.

* Michelle is about a day away from going from her post surgery all liquid diet to a pureed diet. She has been on an all liquid diet for two weeks now preparing for surgery and post op.

* Hi ho hi ho

Back To Work Kind of Monday

Well for us non-hunters in West Virginia, it's the start of another fun filled week of work. It's time to stick our collective noses back on the grindstone for another week of work.

For the Hunters in West Virginia, it's like Christmas to a kid as it is the first day of Deer Season with a rifle. I would like to wish all of those hunter that are already out there or going to be out there a good year, bag a big one and I also that there are no unforeseen accidents and they will all be able to return home to their families this evening. Good luck to all who are hunting today even though it is going to probably be a little on the warm side of ideal conditions today.

It's Thanksgiving week for the rest of us. Michelle and I will once again be spending Thanksgiving Day at the Cassville Firehall with her family. We will head over on Wednesday evening to help start preparing the next days feast as we do every year.

By then Michelle will be over a week post op and able to move to Phase II of her liquid diet where she can have puree'd foods and start back on her protein. She is going to attempt to head back to work today just one week post op. She just needs to take it easy and not over do it.

Have a great day, good luck to hunters and for me...

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday Morning

Here I sit yet once again in the not so early AM for me, I was the first one to recover from a losing battle with the Sandman last night and I'm up early catching my thoughts for the day and watching As Good AS It Gets. Both Michelle and I are up as she is drinking her juice of the gods (Coffee) and waking up.

Michelle is feeling much better today than she did yesterday, last night she was starting to get a little cold and clammy before I went to bed, but she appears to have slept very well and is wide awake this morning. She seems to recover more and more each day, to say that I am proud of her is an understatement.

I did manage to get 315 of Jeans pictures scanned yesterday and put them in not one, but two albums, that brings the grand total to 607 of her pictures that I have scanned over the past two weekends in three albums. Unfortunately that is all of the pictures that she has stored up in the closet. A special thank you to Jean for allowing me to capture these images and a very special Thank You to my sister Pam who was the one who organized all these pictures years ago. I've bought a couple more albums to replace the aging ones that they were in and hopefully we can get together and make a few more albums out of these. Add that to the 301 of Mom's pictures that I have scanned a couple of weeks ago and that will make a grand total of 908 scanned pictures over the last few weekends. I still have some other pictures that need scanned, but these are the same ones I had last spring that I never quite got around to. Anyone else have pictures they want scanned? I'm building a family archive and I think that between what I have scanned and what Kim had done, that that is a whole lot of old pictures to reference for everyone. That is well over 1,000 lost treasures brought back for a digital life.

Next up may be converting VHS to digital, Jean has a number of tapes that we need to look through and determine what needs to be converted as well.

Our schedule is back to normal today, we'll be heading out to the grocery store here in a little while and we'll also be finishing up laundry today. This is probably going to be the extent of our day. I think Michelle and I are going to switch Subaru's for a couple of days, as the clutch may be a little hard for her to navigate this week. The Forrester is a 5 Speed and the Legacy is an Automatic.

Have a great day.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I would say that I am the first one to recover from a losing battle with that dreaded Sandman last night, but Michelle was up most of the night and couldn't sleep due to some stomach pains. I'm up early watching Pink Cadillac on HBO and catching my thoughts for the day.

Like I said, Michelle had a tough time sleeping last night, but is now zonked out and catching a few ZZZ's. We did get out of the house a little yesterday and she may have overdone it a little bit. No worries, we'll get her some rest and relaxation and put her back on the road to full recovery.

Congratulations are in store to my Step Daughter Hayley, she was accepted into Fairmont State and will be joining her brother Chad as college students at this fine University. She has found a field that she wants to study, Veterinary Technology which is a field both she really appears to have a passion for. Both Michelle and I are extremely proud of both her and Chad.

My only plans for the day is to continue scanning the pictures that I got from Jean. I have a long way to go and this will be the second day that I will dedicate to scanning, there are still a number of great images that I want to get captured and stored. This really is a lot of work archiving everything, but it has been an absolute bast for me.

It's going to be a Football-less weekend for me as WVU played Thursday Night and the Steelers are on a Bye this week. Maybe I'll catch a score or two on ESPN.

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.

Well there is some good news in the Hall Household, Michelle was released from the Hospital yesterday morning following her Gastric Bypass Surgery on Monday. She was going to be released on Wednesday, but she was having some pain issues that needed to be resolved first. She was retaining gas in her intestines and this was causing a great deal of pain and discomfort. Thank you to everyone who has followed her through this and all of the love and support that everyone has shown as she begins her road to recovery.

With Michelle healing up, I would say that our weekend plans are getting her some rest and help her recuperate and get back to normal. She has set up a blog to blog about her experiences with this entire experience and as it goes forward. It will be nice to document everything in case in helps someone else down the road trying to decide if they are going to choose this option as well.

Maybe I'll get some more scanning done this weekend.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time to look through all of my pictures. Little lost precious moments in time that I have either captured with a camera, scanned or just stolen somewhere off of the internet. I like to find just one picture and write a little blog about it as I share it with everyone. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task and sometimes it's a struggle, but it is always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks pic come from the nearly 300 that I scanned this past weekend and really liked. I'm pretty sure that this is Christmas either from 1980 or 1981. My sister Pam and Brother Gary and I were opening our gifts from Dad and Jean and one of them two snapped this priceless picture. I'm thinking it was 1980, but I can't swear to that. Unless I am mistaken this is the year that we all got the Intellevision Gaming Device that we all played so much over the next few years.

I'm positive that this was either my first or second Christmas after my Grandmother who raised me had passed away, depending on what year this was taken.

Just a memory of a Christmas Past with a couple of my siblings.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well we have a couple of days in so far, and 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 fun filled weekend off in the distance.

Hopefully Michelle will be able to come home today, she really is making very good progress after her surgery. She is really a trooper and should hopefully start returning to her normal pre-op life by next week. I do know that I am extremely proud of her and the monstrous strides that she has made in a very short period of time. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers for helping her get through this.

The Mountaineers will play their last home game of the season tomorrow night against Kansas State, a team who has spent much of the season ranked in the top 10. If you ask me what one team we have had the most trouble with in the Bog XII, this is the team. Bill Snider is not only a very good coach, he is one of the best and a tough one to beat. We will once again have our hands full when we take the field tomorrow night. It won't be the first time this season, that's for sure.

Obviously there will be no plans for us this weekend, I want Michelle to rest and recuperate as best as she can.

Have a Great Day

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is now behind us and Michelle's surgery went well, I can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* It has been 18,615 days since I first entered this world, I am thankful for each and every one of them.

* 3,838 days ago I graduated from West Virginia University.

* 2,439 days ago my life changed forever. I took this young widowed woman out for a first date.

* 1,863 days ago at around the time this is posting, I got down on one knee in the back yard and asked this wonderful woman to marry me. She said yes.

* 1,200 days ago in front of our closest friends and family Michelle and I exchanged our wedding vows.

* I have 13 days to go until my 51st Birthday.

* There are still 37 more shopping days left until Christmas, it's time to start getting ready for Black Friday.

* I have 43 more days before I publish my Goodbye 2014 Blog.

* There are 122 days (too many) to go until SPRINGTIME!!!!!

* There are 180 days to go until my Niece Brittany Graduates from West Virginia University and joins me as an Alumnus.

* 261 days to go until Mine and Michelle's fourth wedding anniversary.

* I have about 6,222 days or so, give or take a few hundred here or there until I enter into the world of Retirement.

* This is my 3,851st Blog that I have written for George's Journal. I'm in my 122nd month, that's a little over 10 years as a blogger.

* Have I ever mentioned that I Hate Snow?

* I did manage to get 292 pictures scanned this past weekend, that is a lot of scanning, uploading and tagging. I'm not even scratching the surface of the stuff of Jeans that I am going to scan. Lots of great stuff to come.

* I am getting a lot of good information to update the Hall Family Tree site. Pictures and all kinds of stuff to go along with me visiting Grave Yard this summer will be an immense help in filling out the information to populate and grow this tree.

* Hi ho hi ho

Michelle's Surgery

Today my beautiful wife will be having a life altering surgery. She will be having a gastric bypass surgery early this morning and we will be at the hospital at 5:00 AM to report in.

This has been a long journey for the both of us and she is choosing to finish the journey where I have chosen a different path. With so much success just changing my eating habits, I've opted out of the surgery and she is seeing this all the way through.

I'll try keep all appropriate people updated as to her condition and how her surgery is going.

Please keep my lovely wife in your thoughts and prayers today as she has this procedure done.

I can't say how much I love her and how much that am proud of her, she is my rock and my inspiration.  She has a great support group behind her as her Sister and Brother in Law have had a lot of success with this procedure. Her Mother and Sister Danni will here here as well as me and her Sister Chris.

Keep us in your prayers today.

Here I sit in a not so quiet household, my wife is already up and the em this morning and so are both of the cats. She's watching something on the USA Network and I'm here surfing the net and collecting my thoughts for the day.

We have done a good bit of shopping this weekend so far. Michelle bought us a new Microwave on Friday.

We went to the WV Arts & Crafts Christmas Spectacular yesterday and was really surprised. The line to get in was huge and we arrived a half an hour after it opened up. Michelle wanted a hand made sign to hang on the front door and the picture that you see is what she purchased. We did get some nice leads on a few other products including some awesome candles and a custom leather maker.

After that it was off to JC Penney's. I'm continuing to redo my wardrobe after all of my weight loss, I even bought a pair of 36" waist jeans yesterday that fit rather comfortably. I have pants that have a 48" waist if you want a point of reference. Michelle also bought a few things including a robe and a few pairs of pants for after surgery work. We both bought a couple pairs of fleece sleeping pants that were on sale for $10.00. These things are ultra comfortable to say the least.

After we got home Jean called me and said she had grabbed a few picture albums out of the closet and knowing that I have been scanning wanted to know if I wanted them to scan. Needless to say I think I was there before she got the question out and have them in hand. To me these pictures are absolute gold and include a number of pictures that I had taken years ago when I had a camera when I was a kid. There are a lot of great pictures, some I can't even recall seeing before that I think people are going to be surprised with and love.

Today is our normal schedule of grocery shopping and finishing up laundry. Maybe some batch cooking for me this week. Michelle's Mom will be coming down to Morgantown today and staying with us this evening. Michelle has to be at the hospital at 5:00 AM and she will be right there with us as will her Sister(s).

Have a great day and have I ever mentioned that I Hate Snow?

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I wasn't the first one to recover from a losing battle with the sandman last night, but Michelle has went back to bed for a few more hours as I collect my thoughts and wake up.

Today with the Mountaineers off, Michelle and I are probably going to go to the WV Arts & Crafts Christmas Spectacular at Mylan Park. It's something she mentioned that she would like to do today, so we can do that. No major traffic issues around town, so navigating should be pretty easy.

Michelle's surgery is on Monday and she is down over 10 pounds since Monday due to her liquid diet preparing for surgery. I'm so proud of her, I on the other hand have pretty much hit a plateau for the past month or so. It could be that I am grazing on too many carbohydrates since the days have gotten shorter and colder. The sad thing is we are starting to enter the holiday season and I'll start to crave sweets until after the first of the year. This is my worst time period traditionally for weight loss, but I'm still working on it.

It's a brisk and cool 22° outside here in Morgantown as a write this. I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned this before on my blog, but I Hate Snow.  I just thought I would share that little tidbit with you since I don't think I've ever share it before here.

Have a great day and stay warm.

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.

Looking for a little bit of High School Football playoff action? You'll have to wait until tomorrow. #3 Ranked University High will host Woodrow Wilson tomorrow afternoon at their school. #4 Ranked Clay Battelle will host Greenbrier West tomorrow afternoon as well in Blacksville. My Alma Mater is staying home this year. Good Luck Hawks and Cee Bees.

Not many plans for Michelle and I this weekend, since she will continue to be preparing for her surgery on Monday.

There is a Christmas Festival that will be held at Mylan Park this weekend. There is a Coupon for $0.50 off the admission price if anyone is planning on going and attending. Michelle mentioned that she would like to go, so there is a very strong possibility that that is where we will be heading sometime tomorrow.

I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before on my blog or anyplace else. It started to spit snow yesterday while I was at work, I guess you could have called that the first official snow of the 2014-5 season. Like I said, don't know if I have ever given a hint towards my feelings of snow, but I HATE SNOW!

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all of the pictures that I have either taken, scanned or stolen off the the internet through the years. Little lost moments in time to post up here and relive with everyone. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task and sometimes it's not so easy, it is however always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks pic was a rather easy one for me. This was the first picture ever taken of me and Michelle way back when we first started dating in 2008. Her Niece Samantha was having a Birthday party at the Rt. 19 Bar and we stopped in to say hello. It was the night that I first met many of her family members for the first time, so I was a little nervous to say the least.

I scanned about 300 pictures over the past few days and this is one that stood out to me as having to use it for my blog for so many reasons. Mainly this is the first picture of me and my wife ever taken together, even though we had known each other years earlier.

Have a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well that is two days down, even though one of them was a Holiday for me, now if we can just get over this noon time hump, we'll be heading all downhill towards another fun filled weekend.

I did manage to get the rest of my Mom's pictures scanned yesterday, I scanned them and placed the rest of them up on Facebook for every one to see, share and relive. It's mostly my Mother's side of the family that I have scanned the past few days, now I'll get back to scanning the rest of my pictures. I hope to pick up where I left off this Spring and as quickly as I am doing this, I think I can finish this up soon and get to my next winter project of updating the Family Tree.

Yesterday during my day off I returned Mom's pictures to her. She just bought a Soda Stream off of EBay real cheap and I showed her how to use it. She likes the carbonation in her drinks so I think she will fall in love with this thing.

Afterwards I stopped in to say hello to my sister Terri. I haven't seen her for a while and I try to stop in when I know she is working and I'm up in that neck of the woods. We had a nice little visit as the bar only had a couple pf patrons and they were in the back playing the Machines and trying to hit it rich.

Back to work for me today, so

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well that dreaded Monday is now behind us and I am one of the fortunate people to have today Veterans Day off, still can't think of a better reason to do a tidbits.

* It has been 18,608 days since I entered this world, I've tried to live every day to its fullest ever since then.

* It was 3.831 days ago that I graduated from West Virginia University.

* It was 2,432 days ago that I was fortunate enough to take a beautiful young lady out for a night on the town. It was the first day of the rest of my life.

* 1,656 days ago in the wee hours of the morning, I got down on one knee and proposed marriage to this wonderful woman.

* 1,193 days ago in front of our closest friends and family at the Marilla Center, Michelle and I exchanged our wedding vows and became Husband and Wife.

* I have about 6,229 days or so, give or take a few hundred here or there until I retire.

* Michelle and I have 268 days to go until we reach our fourth Wedding Anniversary.

* There are only 187 days to go until my niece Brittany joins me as an Alumnus of West Virginia University when she graduates with her Degree.

* There are only 129 days to go until Spring!!!!!

* 50 days to go until my favorite blog of the year, my Goodbye 2014 Blog as I relive my past year of my life based on the posts of my blog during the preceding year.

* There are 44 more days left for you to get your Christmas Shopping done for the year.

* I have 20 days to go until I reach my 51st Birthday. I have already renewed my AARP Membership for five years. =)

* This is my 3,844th blog in the 10+ years that I have been writing this Journal.

* Like I said before, today is Veterans Day and it's a Federal Holiday, meaning that I am off of work.

*  Being that it is Veterans Day, Veterans have a bunch of free meals coming to them today if they choose to take advantage of them.

* With being off today, I hope to get some more scanning done.

* Michelle is working longer than usual hours this week, she will be off all next week recovering from her surgery Monday.

* Have a Great Day.

Back to Work Kind of Monday

All good things must come to an end, as long as you don't consider the results of my two favorite football teams (WVU and the Steelers) as part of it, it was a pretty good weekend overall. Now it's time to stick our noses back on the grindstone and get back to work for another fun filled week of work.

I did manage to get a number of pictures that Mom loaned me earlier this year scanned yesterday, a lot of them are duplicates, but I scanned them anyways just in case. I have much more scanning to do and being that I will be off tomorrow for Veteran's Day, I will probably get a good bit of it done then. Maybe even finishing up Mom's pics and getting back to scanning my pictures that I have. There are a number of good pics that I didn't have scanned previously that I now have scanned. I do enjoy doing this, it just takes time.

NOW Michelle really starts her liquid diet. She miscalculated last week and ended up making a trial run for a few days, now it is for real as her surgery is one week from today. I'm very proud of her and she has a large support group including her Sister and Brother in Law who have already been through this.

Have a Great Day.

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday Morning Rambling

Here I am once again in a quiet household, I'm the first one to awaken this morning after a good nights sleep and am up early (as usual) surfing the net and collecting my thoughts for the day. I still haven't even turned the TV on so I have no idea what is on.

Talk about a bad game, WVU hasn't played as bad of a half of football as they did yesterday in our 33-16 loss to Texas. We were taken to the woodshed during the first half to say the absolute least. What ever could go wrong, tended to in the first half. We did rebound a little in the second half, but that was just not enough as the Mountaineers drop to 6-4 on the season.

Well my scanning that I wasn't doing since this spring came to an abrupt halt a few weeks ago when Hayley needed her cord back. I was using her scanner and was also using her cord from her XBOX and she needed it back, so I gave it back. Knowing it is getting to be that time of the year again when I want to start scanning again I went out yesterday and bought a new all in one one for the house. Nothing fancy as we don't really have the need to print from home, but one that I can use a scanner and am able to connect to my iPhone and all the computers through a wireless connection. So I started going through some more pictures yesterday that my Mom gave me to scan and should start scanning again in the very near future if not today. =)

Have a great day.

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I'm up early as usual and watching the movie American History X on HBO and up collecting my thoughts for the day.

Looking for some football, well the Mountaineers travel to Austin today to take on the University of Texas Longhorns in College Football. The Mountaineers will try to bounce back from last weeks heartbreaking last second defeat and be playing in front of 100,000+ people as they take on the Longhorns. I am hopeful this week that we can walk out of there with a victory, however this is the University with the largest athletic department budget and is the state university of a state that generates a lot of NFL talent. Our hands will be full today at 3:30 on Fox Sports 1.

Well Michelle made a small mistake, she thought she was supposed to start her liquid diet this past week and she just realized yesterday that the liquid diet is supposed to start this Monday in preparation for her surgery.

No plans for us this weekend, I know Michelle is going to do a little running around with Hayley this morning, she is going to take her to the mall and one or two other places this morning. The only thing on my agenda is to replace a burned out headlight on the Forrester (already have it) and watch a little bit of football this afternoon possibly.

I have set up a date to put up Mom's Christmas Tree and have a Facebook Event Page for it. November 29th will be the day we do it, time TBD. Same rules as last year, lets give this tree another year of life for Mom and Gerald to enjoy during the Holidays.

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.

Well High School Football I think is taking a week off this weekend here in Morgantown, unless the playoffs have started and to be honest with you now that Morgantown is out of it I'm not really paying too close of attention to it all.

No immediate plans for the weekend for us, we've spent the last two cleaning and the Mountaineers are playing away this weekend, but we have absolutely nothing planned as of yet. We usually go out to dinner of Friday's after work, but Michelle is preparing for her surgery so I'll probably just grab something when I get home before we head to Sam's Club.

I know, not much excitement from this blog today, but I was swamped yesterday at work getting some numbers ready for the next Atlas and didn't have too much time to concentrate on content for this blog. The day went by quick, I will say.

Have a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out to look through the photos that I have either taken, scanned or stolen off of the internet through the years and find just one. One lost moment of time that I relive right here on my blog for everyone. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task and sometimes it's not so easy, one thing thing that it always is is a whole lot of fun.

This weeks pic is a very special one for me, it was taken the same day that Michelle and I got engaged. I had proposed earlier that morning and later that evening we went to the Blue Gold Game at Mountaineer Field and then to Trish's for a party. As we were returning home Sherri was there and we happened to snap this magical picture of her and my bride to be.

One of the best days of my life to say the least. This was just a shot taken as the day was winding down. I know we were both pretty tired by this time, so it would be safe to say we were in bed shortly after this picture.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well that is two days that we have in, two more ahead of us, now all we have to do is get passed this noon time hump and it'll be all downhill from there. Another weekend is looming off in the horizon, it's just a matter of planning what we are going to do with it.

No plans in mind yet, and Morgantown will not have any college football being played in town so it might just be the weekend to get out and do something. These times are running short with the Holidays coming up, so I better enjoy it while I can.

Michelle starts a liquid diet today, this is the start of her preparation for her surgery that she is going to have in less than two weeks. They need the liver I think to be shrunk below a specific size, and this is the preparation to get ready for that. I'm very proud of her will do my best to do what I need to do to support her as she moves forward. It's done wonders for both her Sister and Brother in Law.

I'm guessing that now the mid term elections are over with that we can now start to see all of those annoying political advertisements that pollute the countryside start to disappear. I'm not sure what is worse, them or all the annoying misinformation you find polluting Facebook and other social media sites. At least we can have a little break from it until 2016 rolls around now.

Have a Great Day

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well that dreaded thing that we hate so much called Monday is now behind us. We are now staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday and I still can't think of a better reason to do a tidbits.

* 18,601 days, that is how many days that it has been since I first entered the world a little over 50 years ago.

* 3,824 days since I graduated from my college Alma Mater West Virginia University.

* 2,425 days ago I had the opportunity to take a very special lady out for a night on the town, as Michelle and I had our first date together.

* 1,649 days ago, at around 4:00 in the morning, I got down on one knee and proposed marriage to Michelle.

* 1,186 days ago in front of our closest friends and family at the Marilla Center, we exchanged our Marital vows and became Husband and Wife.

* There are only 27 more days to go until my Birthday

* Christmas Shopping? You still have 51 more days to get it done and over with.

* In 57 more days I will publish my Goodbye 2014 Blog, reliving this past year according to what was written in my blog.

* There are 136 days to go until Springtime!!!!!

* Have I ever mentioned that I Hate Snow?

* Only 194 more days until Brittany graduates from WVU.

* 275 days to go until mine and Michelle's fourth wedding anniversary.

* I have about 6,238 days or so, give or take a few hundred here or there until I retire.

* This is my 3,837th blog post that I have written in my ten plus years of writing George's Journal.

* I'm still trying to come up with a day and time to set up Mom's Christmas Tree for the year, that is the next thing that is on my agenda.

* Brad Paisley will be performing at the WVU Coliseum for two shows in January, tickets go on sale this Friday.

* Yes I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), bring on Springtime.

* Holding steady with my weight, not really losing or gaining, but then again I haven't been strictly adhering to my diet as of late either. I'll still get to my target weight.

* As the weather gets colder, I'm learning more and more each night to appreciate my electric blanket. For some reason with all the weight loss, my body doesn't retain heat like it used to and I tend to get a little bit cold.

*  Have I ever mentioned that I Hate Snow?

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately that also includes those fun filled and relaxing things that we refer to as weekends. Now it is time to stick our noses back on the grindstone for another fun filled week of working so we can do the things we like to do on weekends.

Looking at the week ahead, Michelle has a couple more Doctors appointments this week in preparation for her surgery in a few weeks. I think she is all ready for it both physically and psychologically as we have all kinds of supplements and proteins for her.

With Christmas coming up I need to talk with my Mom and everyone else about setting up a time to put up her Christmas Tree for the year. I would like to take care of it pre-Thanksgiving this year so that they can enjoy it a little longer this season. Once again I am asking everyone to make a specialized bulb to place on her tree once as to give this tree a second year of meaningful life. I think it went pretty well last year in it's initial year, lets see of we can grow it again this year and give it a few more memories for her and Gerald to share and enjoy during the Holiday season.

Maybe after tomorrow we can say good bye to all of these political signs around town. Seems like there is a sea of them polluting the countryside, tomorrow is election day and I am encouraging everyone who is registered to vote to get out to get out do your civil duty and do so. This is the only real voice that you have, don't throw it away.

Have a Great Day

Hi ho hi ho

Ouch that one hurt

Well the Mountaineers gave it their best shot, and I thought that they had them, but five turn overs in our own territory and the inability to move the ball late in the game were what caused us to lose a very hard fought 31-30 loss to TCU yesterday. We had them, and we just couldn't move the ball at the end of the game and finish them. No time to revel over that loss as we have Texas and Kansas State coming up in the next two games.

Anyways I am up way too early, especially when this is a day that I get an extra hour to sleep, so I am honestly contemplating going back to bed here in the very near future for a few more hours of sleep. If you haven't already done so, you might want to turn your clocks back an hour or your going to be an hour early going to where you plan on going to today...lol

We got the second half of our fall cleaning done yesterday, carpets shampooed and everything steam cleaned, sanitized and organized around the house both inside and out. I've seen some snow fall in the local area last night, so I guess you could say that we are now prepared for winter in the Household.

A friend of mine posted this picture from her house last night on Facebook, so you can say the area has seen it's first official snowfall of the season. I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned this, but I hate losing football games. I hate snow too, but I hate losing football games more. Aarrgghh.

Our agenda for the day will be a simple one, do our weekly grocery shopping and enjoy the day. The Steelers don't play until 8:30 this evening when they host those awful Baltimore Raisins (not that is not a misspelling, they are a bunch of purple dried up grapes lol) in Pittsburgh. Maybe we can extract some revenge for the loss in Baltimore earlier in the year when I was on a ship full of Ravens fans out in the middle of the Atlantic. Great people, great fans, we just like beating their football team.

Have a Great Day and stay warm. Might even be a good day for a nap, it is getting that time of the year, the days are getting shorter and it's getting colder. Have I ever mentioned that I hate snow?

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit once again in the early AM in a quiet household. Michelle actually beat me with her losing battle with the Sandman last night and was up before me, but she has since went back to bed after drinking about half of a pot of coffee. I'm up watching Information Discovery and cooking my morning breakfast.

For those interested, my procedure that I had done yesterday went fine, I'm good for another ten years now. No major problems or any cancerous cells. That wee long prep is now over with and things are returning to normal for me again. Thank You once again to my Sister Pam for driving me both to and from this procedure.

Well it is game day here in Morgantown. Tent City has a final count of 234 tents in preparation for this mornings Broadcast of ESPN's Gameday. Our guest picker has been selected and it is West Virginia's own son, Country Music Superstar and big fan of WVU Football Brad Paisley.

Visiting Morgantown for today's game is our 4th top 10 opponent of the year (and we're not done yet) in #8 TCU as they invade Morgantown at 3:30 this afternoon. It's cold wet and snowy, exactly what it is NOT in Texas (it was in the 90's for our game last week). I'm hoping for a good showing, I am optimistic today, so it should be a good one.

The MoHawk bowl was played last night. Congratulations to University High for winning this years game that had to go into overtime to settle the score.

Have a great day, we're shampooing carpets.