October 2007

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Beth

Holly Holeman

Her name is Holly Holeman. Her job is working at a flower shop. And her mission to make sure soldiers are never forgotten. Which is why she’s out at Arlington National Cemetery every week putting flowers around the headstones. She usually does this alone, but on a bitter cold day in February of 2007 she was met with family members of fallen soldiers buried in Section 60 of the cemetery who helped her to place the roses.
To read the rest of Holly’s story, you can go here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Sunday (The Aftermath)

All in all I felt like crap on Sunday morning. Nay..I felt like hammered dogshit as Rob would say. I was really looking forward to getting up, packing up, checking out and going to breakfast with the rest of the bloggers prior to heading back to Atlanta.

What I actually did was lie in a coma as the wife and Michelle packed up the cabin and stayed there until it was time to go. I belted myself into the truck while they checked out and said goodbye to everyone. A few brave souls came over to say goodbye, at east until I decided it was time to exit the truck and go blow chunks by the Chattahoochee. That must have been an interesting site for the mid-morning old people taking their morning constitutional walks. At least the monkey hat was off my head.

Luckily that was the end of the nausea but I did spend the entire day sleeping and whining about how awful I felt. Hell, I am still dehydrated 🙂

No phone calls, no dealing with work. Thank goodness there wasn’t any major emergency at work that required my attention.

I am still pissed off that I felt so crappy on Sunday morning. What a freaking lightweight I have become in my old age…

Saturday Night in Helen…

This is when it started getting really ugly. Actually it was a blast and didn’t get rough for me until most of the folks had already retired for the evening. Somehow it was decided by a general concensus well ahead of time (like before I arrived) that the party would be at my cabin on Saturday evening. Oh shit…

It was also voted that we would be having a cook-out for supper rather than everyone invading a restaurant on Saturday night, so a boatload of people walked to the store and bought steaks, vegetables and other goodies. Luckily I was not the one that had to prepare dinner for a change.

It took a while to prepare half a cow and involved stealing a grill and loading it into the back of my pickup truck which I was in no shape to drive, so I handed over the keys and allowed the hooligans to take it. Good steaks were had by all but I think I will grill them next time. Mine was a crispy critter, but then again it could have been the liquor clouding my judgement. I have never had a steak doused with garlic butter though, and I must say that it is a wondrous thing. Thanks, Elisson. Good stuff there.

After we ate there was plenty of entertainment in which I remember nothing in any particular order but we had Robert Service by way of Eric, a great ghost story from Joan (the bearer of flying monkeys) and mucho singing and guitar playing from the elderly brothers as well as several others. RSM has impeccable timing and showed up prior to dinner being served, as did Kelly and the Senior Chief whom I haven’t seen since last year’s yellin’ in Helen.

I think my downfall was the fact that I joined in a couple of Chocolate Vodka toasts on top of all the punch and beer. Man that stuff is good.

Getting Denny the Grouchy Old Cripple up the stairs was quite interesting but not nearly as much fun as bearing him back down the stairs in his wheelchair. He is a much braver man than I as I would have crapped my pants having us drunks carry me down stairs like that.

The party had pretty much died down with a few diehard exceptions when I finally decided I needed to make my exit. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the party was in my cabin so it was difficult to make my way up to the second floor so that I could blow chunks in privacy. I ended up spending half the night on the bathroom floor so that I could be as close as possibly to the porcelain altar in case I needed to pray. Once I started feeling as if I didn’t need to throw up anymore I moved back to the bed, but on the side closest to the bathroom.

Apparently Zonker and Michelle needed to continue the party so they joined our neighbors in the cabin next door. I don’t know the specific details but it had something to do with this chick who was there with her ex-husband and current boyfriend, all of whom were sleeping together. Surreal. I understand that it started moving in the direction of the macabre for awhile. I did manage to get something out of it though, as she actually allowed them to take a photo for this weeks edition of…

(don’t click if you get offended easily)

(more…)

The XBox 360

One of the things that the Marine did while he was at home this last time was to splurge and go out and purchase an Xbox 360. I have been meaning to move it downstairs and give it a try but just don’t seem to have the time to devote to any type of gaming lately. The xbox is pretty cool though. Apparently it works pretty well with Vista and I can broadcast multimedia from my PC to it from Windows Media Player. It looks like I might even be able to get BeyondTV to work with it as well as a client. That would be pretty cool since my Media Center is still down.

I don’t want to get too used to the new toy though since he will eventually be taking it with him. One thing I might do though is to load a couple of software mods onto his old xbox and start using that as my media center, at least in my bedroom. We need to move the big TV back down from the playroom into my room anyway.

Latest News Stories

Here are some of the latest news stories from the AP.

About That Bet…

Although I have been with the same company for almost 21 years I have had several other jobs over the years. Grocery clerk, Landscaping construction, lawn maintenance, Photographer’s assistant, ISP tech support, IT Desktop support, carpet layer and roofer are just a few. I have also worked at quite a few different restaurants, which makes sense considering that I run them for a living.

I spent a couple of months back in the early nineties working in a Mexican/Latin joint. That was OK. The food was good and I already knew the owners. They are a couple of really nice guys from Puerto Rico and have done very well for themselves here.

Anyway, one of the owners grew his own vegetables for the restaurant, at least the spices and fresh peppers. One day he brought in some Jabeneros and one of them bet me that I could not eat the entire thing without spitting it out. Of course when I went home from work that day my wallet was $10 heavier (which was a big deal at that time) and I was shitting fire for two days after that. Holy crap. They don’t call it the hottest pepper in the world for nothing.

PMBuzz

This Post is Sponsored by PMbuzz.com

It’s interesting how many different social networking sites there are now. All but a few of them really seem more directed to gaining web traffic to your site rather than doing any type of actual social networking. One that I have come across recently is PMbuzz.com. PMBuzz is a social networking site for the New York City community. All of the content is user driven and includes photographs, blogs and other multimedia and gives a glimpse into some of the best things that New York City has available.

The site itself is still in Beta but like a lot of sites is an open beta that is more of a full release that will evolve and change. It’s funny how many sites call themselves beta at first, sort of like a cool buzz word.

The site itself is fairly attractive without being too flashy. Right on the front page there are listings for the most popular clubs as picked by the users, photographs, blogs and most importantly people. The site was created for the night life community, for the folks that are out late hanging at the clubs. It’s for the people that go there as well as the entertainers and DJs.

There are lists to sign up for to get notified of events at your favorite clubs so that you can make plans ahead of time, which is always a good thing and you can send messages to your friends on the service so that they will know when and where to meet you. MySpace does this sort of thing but it is so huge and spammy now, whereas something like PMBuzz allows you to be part of a much more local community of people with the same interests in the same area.

There’s Nothing Like…

Being blog of the day when there’s a big old Love Ewe on the top of the page. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Skull

…Just saw the wife and girls off to work and school. I am working an evening shift once a week now in order to improve the business and training. Although I like being at home with the girls in the evening it’s nice to be able to sleep in on a work day. Except for a few days like today where it falls smack in the middle of my work week I have set up my second shifts to coincide with the day after my day(s) off so that I get one or two off and then come in late on my first day back. Considering that I always stay up too late blogging when I am off that will work out nicely.

Quote of the day:
In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day. – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Saturday Afternoon…

As last year, we spent most of Saturday afternoon parked outside by the river. It didn’t take long before a crowd gathered and the implements of destruction started to come out.

I think that I started out with Sam Adams Oktoberfest around 11AM or so. Quite fitting for the Blogtoberfest it was indeed. Georgia brought the Love Ewe down to the river to keep us company and we found out that it was she who kept the Love Ewe company Friday night. At least someone had a bit of fun Love Struck

Helen Blogtoberfest 081

After a bit of introspection Elisson found directions on the sheep’s ass. What he was doing with the sheep’s ass I didn’t bother asking. Just saying, that’s all. I did manage to get a bit of video of the poetic reading as a matter of fact. It’s a pretty crappy video but what the hell do you expect from my cell phone anyway, miracles?

After the bit of reading some more quite interesting things came out such as Flying Monkeys and the Headless Cock.

Helen Blogtoberfest 066

Helen Blogtoberfest 065

I am still not sure who enjoyed stroking the cock more…     

 

 

The flying monkeys kicked ass though. Key shows us how they work. I think this was shortly after V-Man beaned with in the lip with a half-rubber. That fucker is still swollen.

My girls got the booty when I arrived home so that is most likely the last I will see of the flying monkey, at least until it swoops down upon my unsuspecting head.

Of course maybe I shouldn’t have given them the monkey, particularly after catfish inserted it into the Ewe…

Helen Blogtoberfest 094

Throughout the afternoon various items found their way into the back end of the Love Ewe. I can only show you those safe for family viewing however Laughing

Helen Blogtoberfest 131

Sam demonstrates the proper placement of Shiner. This was right around the time that some new arrivals showed up. John Cox paid us a visit after Sam and Zonker drove to Atlanta and kidnapped him at gunpoint. Art will never be the same again. Eric and Fiona also arrived shortly after the sheep shenanigans as well.

The punch arrived…

Helen Blogtoberfest 140

Ah, the punch…Much can be said about Chatham Artillery Punch. Mixed with several hours of drinking beer and washed down with Chocolate Vodka…It’s no wonder that I woke up dead Sunday morning.

Georgia shows us her Headless Cock impersonation…

Helen Blogtoberfest 098

Quite a likeness…

And the amazing swelling reptile was brought out. Not that one, a real fake reptile.

Helen Blogtoberfest 114

This bad boy when immersed in water is supposed to swell up to three feet long within seven days…It disappeared at some point prior to Sunday morning…

A bit of Half-Rubber was finally played. The Kristy decided to park cars where we played last year, so we moved the deal over behind our cabins. Less bother for the normal people I am sure, what with all of the fun going on.

Helen Blogtoberfest 194

Helen Blogtoberfest 244

“If you don’t throw the ball right this time I am going to beat you to death with a shovel!”

Helen Blogtoberfest 223

That was right around the end of my picture taking for the weekend. I shot a couple hundred pictures. Some were pretty good and some were shit. I will be posting them eventually and if you want, shoot me an email and I will ftp them somewhere or I can probably burn a CD.

Anyway, around four or so several of us decided that we were getting hungry. Being as how I am such a lightweight drinker I thought that food might be a good thing to have. Zonker knew of a barbecue place and several of us made the trek. It was pretty good but I still haven’t decided if the half mile walk to the place was worth it or not. It did manage to negate the effects of the alcohol that I had imbibed thus far, or at least push them into the background for awhile.

Shortly after getting back to the area I returned to my comfy chair and started in on the punch again. It was about that time that I said fuck it and called my senior manager and informed him that he was in charge for the rest of the evening and the next morning and that I would be turning my phone off until I arrived home. That may have been a mistake…

John did a few caricatures while he was there, and has them up at his site as well. Luckily I was fortunate enough not to have been drawn. I was pretty much a walking caricature with my zeebus T-shirt and monkey on the head anyway. Forgot to tell you about that part…perhaps later, when I return to talk about the rest of Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Saturday Morning…

So we get up Saturday morning. I was up pretty early originally. I woke up around four and reset the alarm for six so that I could make sure that everyone was going to show up for work. I called the stores when I got back, made sure that my six o’clock girls were there and called all of my cooks to make sure they were all up and on the way. At seven I called the stores back to speak to the managers and get their sales numbers. Amazingly everyone showed up for work Saturday. It took that one manager 40 minutes to count the damned drawer and finally get her numbers to me though. I don’t know what the heck takes her so damn long but it’s like pulling teeth to get it done.

Once she finally gave me what I needed I called my boss and told him who was in each store and so on…at which point he asks:

“where are you at today”

“I’m sort of off, but I’ll be taking care of staffing”

Helen Blogtoberfest 044“That’s what I thought. Talk to you later”

Bwahaha

At this point I went back to bed until nine or so. I wanted to try and sleep later but it just wasn’t happening.

We decided to go find people and maybe go eat some breakfast, as the bagel I had eaten just wasn’t going to do it. V-Man and Key had just driven back up to their cabin after having waited forty minutes somewhere and never Helen Blogtoberfest 045getting fed. They had to check out of their cabin and needed to get cleaned up, but V-Man was still hunting something to eat. The previous year we had  eaten at a pretty nice buffet off the beaten path called the Farmer’s Market Cafe so we decided to go there. The wife and I, Elisson and SWMBO, and V-Man wandered down there. No wait and the food was good. It’s really not that far from the main road so I don’t know why they weren’t that crowded. Luckily they were nice too. I left my travel mug and the waitress chased us down to return it. My favorite on too (the mug, not the waitress)

After breakfast we wandered back down to the Chalet Kristy and found some of the reprobates already hanging out in front of their rooms. Erica was up pretty early considering how long she had been awake the night before. I don’t know how late everyone had stayed up since I was in bed around eleven or so.

Helen Blogtoberfest 048

After we had made our greetings and all of that happy shit we decided to gather down by the river.

Helen Blogtoberfest 053

That’s the view of the Chattahoochee from the swings outside of the Chalet Kristy. The place is a dive but it’s the only one that will let us come back year after year. It’s also a family-owned type place so we are giving our business to locals rather than some corporate conglomeration, which is kind of cool.

I have to go get ready for work but will post more pics and whatnot once I get home this afternoon provided everything goes well at work today. I have to return the rental and then go to a three o’clock meeting but that’s about it as far as I know.

Quote of the day:
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome. – Isaac Asimov