A Special Thanks

Now that Michelle and I have a car up and running I would like to extend a few special thank yous.

Jean. Thank you very much for all that you have done. Loaning us your car while we got one on the road yesterday was has been very appreciated. We were looking everywhere and you once again came through.

Scott. A coworker who unselfishly loaned us his truck for a couple of days so that both Michelle and I could get back to work during the time our vehicle is down.

A heartfelt thank you to all who helped and assisted us this past week.

Congratulations Brittany

Wow how the time flies by, Brittany Dae Cummings is graduating from High School this evening.

I can't express how proud of here that I am. Michelle and I will try to be there tonight (car situation) for her graduation ceremonies at Clay Battelle High School. I have been to the school, but never been inside of it, so this will be a little bit of a surprise for me.

Congratulations Brittany.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week when we cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again the dawn of yet another weekend and once again a Big Ole Hairy Friday!!!!

Both Michelle and I are actually off today, we're going to try to get another car on the road while mine is out of commission in what could be a period of time. So we are going to make sure we have at least one mode of transportation here.

I spoke to Pam who spoke to Angela, Moke will be returning home from June 26-28 before he deploys.

Have a great day and the start of another weekend.

Car Broke Down

yeah I know, this has to be the story of my life. My car is broke down and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is not a major issue, but we are preparing for the worst.

We were coming home Tuesday evening and the car started making funny noises and had absolutely no power. When I say no power, I mean 3-4 MPH top speed down hill. I'm afraid this may be something major.

We're looking to buy one of the older fleet cars from where Michelle works. I'll keep everyone informed, but right now I am borrowing a coworkers car to get me and Michelle back and forth to work.

I've had better weeks.

Moke is off and away

The day has come, Moke has finally flown out of the area and en route to his destination, Ft. McCoy Wisconsin for I believe about six weeks of training, before returning home for a couple days before he is deployed to Afghanistan.

Pam mentioned something about Kuwait, as a possible initial place he will be shipped to, but I'm sure we have about a month and a half to find out more information about his departure.

Pam, Angela and George all traveled to Benedum airport to see him away yesterday. I never did get the chance to talk to him before he left, but I'm sure I'll see him when he returns prior to his deployment.

I'll ley everyone know his contact information where he is stationed as soon as Pam or Ang hears something.

You mean the weekend is over?

It was nice to have a relaxing three day weekend, I know I needed one and I am quite sure Michelle appreciated having one also. It was a weekend of geocaches, visiting family, grilling out and a nap or two during the process.

Now however it it time to put the nose back to the grindstone and get back to our daily grind. I do have to say that I did have a chance to relax. I am refreshed so I guess that that helps me on how I face the day before me.

Memorial Day

I guess you can call this the unofficial start of summer. The Memorial Day Weekend is the starting point that many refer to as the start as opposed to labor day being the end.

The weather has been very cooperative the entire weekend. Little to no rain, in a weekend that basically called for rain all weekend. Nice enough that Michelle twisted my rm hard enough to force me to take her to Dairy Queen. OK, maybe it was the other way and I twisted her arm, but who cares. We had Dairy Queen.

If you do nothing else today, take a few minutes out and give thanks to those who have served and died protecting our freedoms. Sometimes the timing and weather of holidays cause us to forget why we have a holiday to begin with.

Enjoy your day and remember a soldier.

A day of visiting yesterday

Yesterday was a day of visiting Michelle's family in Ohio and a few Ohio Geocaches. The day started out with us finding three geocaches in Est Liverpool Ohio. One of which was cleverly hidden at the Lou Holtz Museum downtown.

First visit of the day included Michelle's Aunt Charlotte who we saw as we drove by. We stopped and talked to her a few minutes and then it was on to stop number two, Michelle's grandmother Gigi. 87 year old women who was outside in the 80 degree weather planting flowers.

The third stop of the day was at Michelle's Dad's to pick up a Iron City Beer collectible sis pack to commemorate the Pittsburgh Steeler's six Super Bowl Champions. I guess the CEO of Iron City is a good friend of Michelle's Dad and brought him a few of the collectibles.

Final stop of the day after a lunch break at the Hot Dog Shop was her Mom's to visit with her for a while. Her sister Danni just bought a new convertible Mustang, so of course Danni and Michelle went cruising around looking for good looking guys. She however got stuck with me taking her home.

It was a nice relaxing day to get out of town, I'm very happy the weather has been holding up.

Happy Birthday George McClain

If you see George McClain today, make sure you wish my brother from another mother a very Happy Birthday. If My count is correct this is either 41 or possibly 42 for George.

George is one that has always been there for me, especially on car issues and I still owe 1,00,003 favors to.

Wow this is cheap

Just saw this mini laptop on the internet for $279. Mice cheap price if you are looking for a cheap laptop.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week when we cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again the dawn of yet another weekend (three day one at that) and another Big Ole Hairy Friday.

I have to love it and to me this is the unofficial start of summer, even though softball has already started for the year. No snow and warm days ahead.

Tonight Michelle and I are going to have Colasessanos Pizza for dinner. We had our first one last week, but tonight we have a couple frozen kits we are going to make at home.

Bright and early tomorrow morning Michelle, Hayley and I will be heading to East Liverpool Ohio to visit Michelle's Dad. We'll also stop and visit her mom and sister on either the trip up, or the trip back.

Hopefully the weather holds up all weekend.

For those of you who have never ridden the PRT

The PRT is down for the summer for maintenance. For those of you who have never had a chance to ride it, here is a Ride from end to end. From the Medical Center to Walnut.

Not much to say today, just looking for a little educational video for some of you who may never have ridden it.

Happy Birthday Pam

I would like to take this time and wish my sister Pam a very Happy Birthday today. She was off yesterday taking Moke to Camp Dawson, but today is her day. The day that is all hers and may all good things come her way today.

Make sure you wish Pam a very Happy Birthday today.

Tidbits

* Well there was a change of plans and assignments, Moke is reporting this morning at 5:30 AM and will be deployed to Afghanistan for a tour of 14 months. Pam called me again yesterday and gave me the latest update. I would have liked to have seen him before he left, but conflicting and changing schedules unfortunately prevented this.

* Trish, Layla and Arron stopped by yesterday evening. I felt bad because the birthday girl brought us some birthday cake to share.

* It's Humpday, the weekend (and a three day one at that) is getting closer.

* This is going to be a short BLOG, not too much to say beyond what I have already said.

Testing a feature

Testing Microsoft Virtual Earth

Happy Birthday Trish

Happy Birthday Trish!!!! It's no too often you find a friend like this, so when you do you definitely keep them around. She is a joy to be around and a trustworthy friend. Happy Birthday Trish.

A Good Night for Sports

Yesterday was an awesome day for sporting events. There are days when the planets just align perfectly and everything works your way, yesterday was one of those days.

The day started out with the softball team returning to form and picking up our third win of the young season to run our record to 3-1. This years team has gotten back the the fundamentals that we seem to had forgotten last season and guys are having fun once again, or at least having fun during the game AND post game.

After the game we headed to MiHALEY'S to watch the end of the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 victory and taking a 1-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead in the best of 7 series against the Carolina Hurricanes.

To close the night out, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 12-7 to give me a nice sports tri-fecta on the day.

Back to work kind of day, how about a tidbits

* This would be a lot nicer if this was NEXT Monday instead of today, a day that I have to return to my labors so I can enjoy myself.

* Just a little clarification from a critic. Kayla, who I blogged about a couple of days ago is Jean's Niece. It is Jean's younger sister Sandy's daughter. They managed to finish as first runner up in the states tennis tournament over the weekend.

* I have a softball game tonight at 8:00. This my least favorite time to play, because it is too early of a game to take a nap before and too late of a game after work. It's kind of the worst of both worlds for me.

* Pam left me a message and clarified that Moke was being shipped out to Wisconsin next Tuesday rather than Monday.

* I stopped over at Farida's this afternoon to help her hook up her TV set. She bought a TV stand with 16 WRONG pieces and a small separate note at the bottom of the box saying not to use the pieces in the bag. Too late, they should have told me that before it punched up through. Her and Jean will return it later this week and we'll do it again...with the right parts.

* Michelle planted a bunch of flowers around the house this afternoon. We moved all the firewood we had stored and she planted a flower garden in the planter behind it.

* Ran into Mom yesterday morning at Wal-Mart. Just like us, she was doing a little grocery shopping on a Sunday Morning.

* Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's back to the grindstone I go.

Moke is going to be deployed

Pam called me yesterday evening with a little bit of news. I guess Mokie has received his orders and is to report to Camp Dawson this coming Saturday morning and will be shipped to Wisconsin for two months for training before being shipped overseas for 18 months in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I spoke briefly with Pam and she had a friend who had someone deployed the same way and said this could mean either he is going to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

He will report to Camp Dawson Saturday Morning and be in Wisconsin by Monday.

A Day of Geocaching

Yesterday morning Michelle and I were contemplating what we could do for the day and she mentioned Geocaching. I know you have to twist my arm to get me to go out with a GPS and find things, but I was willing.

We decided with all of the things that were going on around town that that there would be too many muggles around for us to effectively do it so we decided to go out of town to do it.

After a little bit of thinking I decided that we should go to Philippi, a place Michelle had never been to Philippi nor had she ever seen its historical covered bridge
.

ON our way we decided to also stop at the International Mother's Day Shrine to find a cache and as we were on our way to Philippi we stopped by the Anna Jarvis Birthplace.

Now I do have to confess that driving to Philippi I managed to see something standing right beside the road that I had to turn the car around and drive back to get a few pictures of it. How often are you driving along the road to see a goat standing on the side of the road? after I turned around and turned around the second time to return on our trip to Philippi, our roadside goat's mate also decided to stop by for an appearance after she heard there were photo ops. I mean seriously if you are a goat and someone is taking your mate's picture to post all over the world wide web, wouldn't you also want some of this exposure?

I know a goats life probably isn't that exciting, so this has to be the highlight of their lives.

On the return trip home we took the scenic route of the scenic route and stopped at Colasessanos Pizza for dinner. I have to say it was the first time I have ever gotten the chance to try it and both Michelle and I gave it two thumbs up and a very good pizza. I think I will have to add it to one of my favorite Pizza's that I have ever eaten.