Traveling Kind of Day

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I'm the first one to recover from a losing battle with that dreaded Sandman and I'm watching Reel Steel on FX and collecting my thoughts for the day.

We have decided to make this a travel day and we are heading to Moundsville, West Virginia to visit and tour the Penitentiary. We were there last year and decided that we were going to return this year, but it's not until today that we actually making it back. It's a facility that I have always wanted to tour, as I had an Aunt and Uncle who lived just a few blocks down the road.

There are a couple of other places we are talking about visiting today, one is going to be Cabelas where we are going to stop and see what kind of spices and casings they have for making sausage. I bought a meat grinder and sausage stuffer attachments for the Kitchen Aid last weekend we are looking for a few supplies and tips to be able to use it.

A trip to that area would never be complete without a stop by Dicarlo Pizza, but I think I'll limit it to a slice or two rather than half of a pizza. I'm doing good on my weight loss and don't want to get off track.

Speaking of my weight loss, since May 22nd I'm down 83.7 lbs and I'm down 98.7 lbs since Christmas. I've still got a way to go, but I'm still focused despite my intention to enjoy myself with a little bit of pizza this afternoon. Just for the record, my BMI when I went to my first diet class in May was 43.51 and today it is 31.84. What has this done for me? My A1C in June was 10.4 and I was on 92 units of insulin. My A1C earlier this week was 5.4 (5 whole points drop in a few months and eliminated insulin completely with no other meds). I'm getting there, I'm just not there as of yet, but I'm getting there. I think I can spare a slice or two of pizza today. =)

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 and a Three Day Holiday Weekend for me!!!!!!!

First off I would like to wish my Nephew Moke and his lovely wife Ang a very Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary today. It's hard to believe that that was four years ago. Definitely a couple of my favorite people.

Football? Well, not unless you want to travel this weekend because all three local High Schools are traveling and the Mountaineers are traveling as well tomorrow.

We do have some plans for tomorrow, Michelle and I will be traveling to Moundsville once again to visit and tour the old State Penitentiary. We were there last year and knew we wanted to make it back to tour the facility this year. It was something we talked about doing in the spring, but it looks like we'll be making the trip tomorrow instead. I have always wanted to tour that facility as my Aunt Juanita and Uncle Chuck lived right down the street from it when they were with us. I can remember visiting them a few times and visited the Mound, but the Pen was a Pen then.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all the pictures that I have either taken, stolen, or been given and that I have stored on my local computer and my external hard drive that I use. Little lost moments in time that were forever captured and in some times later shared with others. Sometimes this is an easy process and sometimes it's not so easy, it is however always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture comes courtesy of my Moundsville family. Renee Wolfe sent me this picture earlier this week and as soon as she sent it I knew right there and then that that was this weeks photo flashback.

The people you see in the picture are both now long deceased, but not forgotten. The man on the right was my Uncle Chuck and the woman on the right was my Dad's oldest sister Juanita or Booky (Boo Key) as I used to refer to her. This picture was taken from their home on First Street in Moundsville, and to be honest with you I can't put a date on it. My best guess would be sometime in the early 80's if not late 70's.

Juanita was the first one to introduce me to probably my one vice in life, soda pop, when I was a young kid. She would always drink a glass of soda (just one) every night. She was the one who turned me on to the carbonated sugary (I drink Sugar free diet now) addiction that I still have today.

Back in those days the family referred to me as Eddie, but Uncle Chuck always referred to me as Edderd. It was his little name for me. As strange as it sounds, it was Uncle Chuck who taught me me colors years ago. In a coloring book he took a red crayon and wrote red, a blue crayon to write blue, a yellow crayon to write yellow, a green crayon to write green and I think a black crayon and wrote black.

I miss them both dearly, and even took my wife Michelle to Moundsville a couple of months ago and showed her what I think was their house.

I would like to return there this spring to tour the Prison  and maybe even eat a little (or a lot) of DiCarlos Pizza if anyone might be interested in going.

Hi ho hi ho