Me vs. Chuck Norris

Good morning everyone. It's a chilly 57 degrees outside and I have my coffee. I love this weather. My daughter Cindy asked me to put this picture up of me vs. Chuck Norris so here it is. :) Hope everyone has a great day.

I'm still alive. :)

I'm still alive. :) I had my heart cath and my heart is in great shape. It just goes to show that years of avoiding fruits and vegetables and eating meat and junk must be good for heart health. LOL Seriously, I don't eat many fruit and veggies because they make me sick with my crohns. On the down side the heart cath was a pain, not the cath itself ( that was a cakewalk ) The hard part was getting it done at all. My white count was up to 24,000 and I don't have any infection. I was transferred to a hospital room and then two more before they finally decided that I could have the cath after all. The Dr's said that they are going to check me for leukemia. My white count has been high for a while now and it is something to be a little concerned about. Hopefully it's just my Crohns disease. Yesterday I was very sick but today I feel much better. I'm just going to take things one day at a time. :)

The weather is still HOT here with temps in the 90s and heath index's in the 100-115 range. I am getting nervous about the next utility bill..... Oh well, such is life. I'm a happy person and blessed in so many ways I'll just be thankful for all that I have. I got an email from my daughter Cindy, she said " Fun stuff. Went to Chilies w/ my boyfriend and Andrew ( was in A school w/ him and he is on the Nimitz). Had a good time". It's great to hear from my kids. My son Mike called several times from South Korea and he is doing well. Mike has been working hard and is exhausted but is doing ok. I haven't heard from my son John and am anxious to hear from him.

To my daughter Cindy, hope you have a great day and I love you. :) <-- I know Cindy will read this and the other kids won't LOL That's all for now.

Good afternoon

Good afternoon. I finally got the lawn mowed and did allot of yard work that needed done. The heat index is 109.3 outside. I get my cardiac cath tomorrow. Hope everyone is staying inside and staying cool.

Good morning

Sunrise this morning

Good morning. It looks like it's going to be another hot day here in South East Kansas. I woke up this morning and the first thing I read was "HEAT INDICES.BETWEEN 105 & 110 DEGREES WILL AFFECT THE ENTIRE AREA FOR THIS AFTERNOON & EARLY EVENING." I know I was complaining this past winter and said that I was looking forward to summer but this is not what I meant. :) Oh well, be careful what you ask for right? LOL

Yesterday I cleaned the house and gave myself a haircut. I am going to do some work this afternoon and then try to get our lawn mowed. I'm trying to get everything done before I go to the hospital Monday. Right now I'm still on my first cup of coffee and am craving a cigarette. I think I'll go outside and have a smoke.

To my daughter Cindy on the USS Abraham Lincoln, hope your doing well and hope you have a great day. Love you, Dad

Tuesday

Good morning, things are still slow here in Kansas. The weather is getting warmer with daytime temps in the low 80s and that has been nice. I am concerned about what to do when it gets warmer here. My wife Vicki has MS and the heat can cause her to become very ill. We have some electrical issues that need fixed to get our air-condition working but the expense is too high for us right now.


I bought gas for the grill a few weeks ago and have been cooking outside as much as possible. This past weekend I cooked a whole chicken on the grill for the first time and it turned out great. I split the chicken in half and marinated it in Italian dressing for several hrs before cooking it over indirect heat for 1 1/2 hrs. I just turned one side of the grill on high and put the chicken on the other side. I checked the temp to determine when it was done ( 175 degrees for us ) and then took it off the heat and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving. It was some of the best chicken we have ever had.

The kids are all doing well with John taking some classes for his job, Cindy on leave until tomorrow and Mike working 14hr days in South Korea. That's about all for now.

John & Mike are both here

Mike on left and John on right

Good morning everyone. Our sons John & Mike are both here for the holidays. John got in yesterday about noon after driving up from Florida. Mike got in the day before yesterday from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo after I picked him up. John & Mike haven't seen each other in 7 years but they have talked on the phone several times. Mike is in the Army and John in the Navy. John took a much needed nap yesterday afternoon and after a dinner of Lasagna they went out together and played pool until late. I was asleep when they got in last night but It's really nice to see them together. I'm really enjoying them.

Furnace Flame Sensor

The furnace stopped working today so I took the cover off and cleaned it out ( all the dust and dirt ) and tapped on the flame sensor ( I drew an arrow in the picture ) and it started working again. If it stops again today I will take out the flame sensor and clean it off. Oh what a fun Saturday. LOL :)

The free desk

We moved the desk and hutch that we salvaged from the trash ( one of the neighbors across the street threw it out ) to the kitchen and my wife Vicki decorated it.

Our free desk with hutch

These are pictures of our free desk with hutch. The people across our street put it out and put a "FREE" sign on it this past weekend. I was mowing the lawn when I saw it and told my wife and son Mike. Mike looked at me like I was crazy but I knew that we could use it. LOL Yes, then I took it... :) We have it on the back porch / laundry room now...

Apple Pie and the first tomatoes from our garden.

Apple Pie and the first tomatoes from our garden.

Vicki and Scruffy this morning.

Scruffy in the Kitchen this morning

Vicki talking to Scruffy this morning in the laundry room

We had a busy weekend here in Kansas

Good morning all, we had a busy weekend here in Kansas. We decided at the last minute to have a yard sale and get rid of all the junk in the garage. We started Friday afternoon and ended the yard sale yesterday at about noon when it started to rain. I had cleaned out the garage last month and had thrown away all the things that I thought were trash and kept stuff that I thought we should try to sell. Our son Mike helped me bring all the stuff out to the front of the house using his station wagon Friday afternoon and that helped allot. We did get rid of allot of stuff that was just clutter and the garage has allot more room in it now.

I talked to our Navy kids, John and Cindy this weekend and they are both doing well. John has been staying in a hotel on base and enjoying a big comfortable bed while his ship is in port. Cindy has been busy getting ready for her almost year long stint an an IA in Iraq. Cindy posted her schedule "Leave here 27Sep, Go to San Diego. 05Oct Fort Sill, OK, 08Nov Fort Jackson, SC, 30Nov Fort Sill, OK 20Dec Fort Lewis, WA 28Jan Kuwait 08Feb Iraq" I am hopeful that I will be able to see her when she is at Fort Sill, OK being that it is only about 300 miles from us.

Our son Mike is still working on a temp basis at Russell Stover Candies in Iola, KS and is reaping some of the benefits of his job. He hasn't taken them up on the free candy yet ( we wish he would ) but he did come home with a free watermelon last week. They were giving out watermelons to all the employees when they left work one day last week and we are still eating it. :) Mike goes into the Army in one month ( Sept 15th ).

That's about all from here. It's just going to be a relaxing Sunday, at least I hope so. My crohns disease is acting up this morning and I feel like crap if you know what I mean. :) Bye for now, I'll write more soon.

Thank you Cindy

My daughter Cindy got me this beautiful throw for Fathers Day this year. I love it Cindy and it was so thoughtful of you to put your brothers names on it too. I will cherish it always. I love you, Dad

Our Dog Tanner passed away yesterday at the age of 16.

Our beloved Dog Tanner passed away yesterday at the age of 16. He was a good dog and a companion and will be missed. Tanner had cancer and wasn't getting better, he had stopped drinking and eating for the last two days. Yesterday afternoon we made the decision to have him put to sleep. We buried him in our back yard near the mock orange bush on the North side of our yard. He always liked going under that bush. We will always have good memories of him and he had a very good life here.

Don't ever ask, what else can go wrong? LOL

Last evening the rain finally stopped and I went out to mow the lawn with my new mower blade installed, I was half-way done when the gas tank fell off the mower. I quickly fixed that and continued mowing and when I was just about done the back left wheel broke off the mower ( the mower deck cracked ) I finished mowing anyway by holding the mower up and I will fix the mower deck today with some sheet metal.

In the last two weeks:

The washing machine tub cracked and we bought a used one from Home Appliance for $160.00. The used washer lasted two days and stopped working. They came out and said it couldn't be fixed so we ended up buying a new one from them ( they did apply the money from the used one to the new one ) and we are happy with the new GE Washer.

The Central air stopped working in our house. The Contractors came out and fixed that with a new capacitor, Freon, and two new pipes.

I went to plant our small garden and my shovel broke in half, I bought a new one.

The mower blade bent in half the last time I mowed, I bought a new blade and installed it.

Don't ever ask, what else can go wrong? LOL

Our Deck after using the Power Washer

A friend of ours "Mike" let me use his Power Washer to clean our deck last evening. It took me about three hours but was well worth it. Thanks Mike. :)

Funniest movies of all time, our picks

Our son John asked me last night, "If you get a chance can you and Vicki think of what you guys think the funniest movies of all time are?"

Below is the list of Movies that we came up with.


* Monty Python's Holy Grail
* A Fish Called Wanda
* The Jerk
* Animal House
* Stripes
* Airplane
* Fast Times at Ridgemont High
* Young Frankenstein
* Silver Streak
* The Blues Brothers
* Raising Arizona
* Trading Places
* Blazing Saddles
* Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
* Stir Crazy
* Dogma
* The Burbs
* Parenthood
* All of Me
* Seems Like old times
* Caddyshack
* What About Bob?
* The End
* I Love You to Death

Happy Birthday Vicki

Flowers Vicki got from her girlfriends in Arkansas for her birthday this year.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife Vicki



Famous Birthdays 1959

Births

* “Weird Al” Yankovic
* Adrian Paul
* Aidan Quinn
* Apollonia Kotero
* Babyface
* Brian Setzer (Stray Cats)
* Bronson Pinchot
* Bryan Adams
* Danny Ainge
* Dave Coulier
* David Hyde Pierce
* Emma Thompson
* Florence Griffith Joyner
* Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
* Jim McMahon
* Jody Watley
* John McEnroe
* Kathy Sledge (Sister Sledge)
* Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s)
* Keith Olbermann
* Kevin Spacey
* Kyle MacLachlan
* Lawrence Taylor
* Linda Blair
* Magic Johnson
* Marie Osmond
* Matthew Modine
* Morten Harket (a-ha)
* Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson)
* Nastassja Kinski
* Randy Travis
* Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi)
* Rodney A. Grant
* Rosanna Arquette
* Sade

My Desk and my wife Vicki at her Desk

My wife Vicki at her Desk today

My Desk

My wife Vicki gave me her LCD monitor today and took the CRT that I was using for my Linux computer. This is so much better.

What a Day

It's been a real pain today. This morning I had to take my wife Vicki to get an MRI of her back and I had to have some blood work done. Vicki has been having back problems and pain for several months after taking a bad fall in the house. If you don't already know it Vicki has MS, and SLE. That was not the part that was a problem today. I would do anything for my wife and I have no complaints about that. The problem is that our solar lights that we had in our front yard for several years were stolen while we were gone this morning. We were only gone for 1 1/2 hrs and the 8 solar lights were here when we left at 9:30am and were gone at 11am when we returned home. My wife has lived in this neighborhood for 20 years and I have been here for 10 years myself and never had anything like this happen. We are certain of the people that took them. We have new neighbors two houses north of us and they seem to be nothing but trouble. I did call the police and made a report when we got home. I also went out and bought locks for our back yard gate, garage and so on. What a pain in the a**. The nice thing about living here is that all the other neighbors that we have on our block are great. We mentioned the theft to our next door neighbors ( I mow their lawn for them whenever I mow mine, no charge ) and they brought a new set of solar light over to us. You can't get better people than that. I will tell you that the people that took our lights will not be happy if I catch them touching my stuff again. :) That's about all for now..