It's another manic Monday

Just when I was hoping that this week would be a good week to play catch-up at work, my truck driver called out sick. So, I've got to brave DC traffic with a box truck which is not my cup of tea. I like driving, but DC has too many pedestrians and too many street signs to pay attention to when driving any vehicle, let alone a big truck. I think I'll hide now.

Rainy Day Burnoff

If your like us and you have a kiddo that has tons of energy, I'm sure you've found it very frustrating when it's pouring out side and your kid's energy is pouring over.  Our favorite activity to remedy this is taking him to the roller rink.   After skating around for 3 hours he gets pretty tuckered out and he usually falls asleep on the ride home.  

We used to go to Chuck E Cheese on days like this, but we've found that the roller rink is much cheaper and usually a little less crowded.  

Maybe you have some activities that you like to do to burn off kid energy on yucky rainy days....... care to share?  We're always open to new ideas.

Spoiled rotten

This is my dog Oreo.  She is part Bassett Hound and part Beagle.  She loves long walks in the park, chasing dad in the yard, playing keep the stick away from dad, cuddling on the couch, sleeping, and playing with her kong toy when it has meaty bones inside.  

After all they have personalities.

Have you ever given your vehicle a name? I have named every single car, truck, and motor home I've ever owned. Here's a list in order from first car to the one I'm soon to own:

Bessy (1986 Chrysler New Yorker)
Betty Lou (1989 Jeep Cherokee)
Thelma Lee (1990 Ford Bronco, and it looked just like O.J.'s)
The Super Tortoise (1977 Vogue Motor Home Class A 32 Ft.)
Vicky Vandura (1995 GMC Vandura Full size conversion van)
Connie (1994 Toyota Corolla)
Molly (Mazda hatchback 2 door something or other)
Holly (Honda Accord)
Nancy (Nissan Sentra)
Sunny (Plymouth Sundance)
Izzy (Izusu Trooper)
Dixie (1988 GMC pick-up)
The Wash Wagon (Ford F-350 Diesel Stakebody pick-up)
Bertha (GMC 1500 pick-up)
Sally (2003 Saturn Ion)
Patty (2000 Chevy Prizm)
Chloey (2006 Saturn Vue, aka The Blue Dragon)
Susan (2005 Pontiac Sunfire which is my car that is waiting in the wings)

I figure why not name each and every one of them because over their lives they all develop a personality.

What's the grossest job you've ever done?

I know mine was really gross when I was a janitor at an athletic club in Ohio. I was making minimum wage and it certainly wasn't worth it when you considered the gross task that I was asked to do one day.

I was asked to take a screw driver and rag and clean the body hair out of the space between the wooden slats in the sauna. Talk about gross! Hopefully you were not about to eat when you read this post.

Life under the pastor's desk. part 4

When we weren't on the road in the Super Tortoise on a concert trip, the motor home remained parked in the driveway beside my church's office building. The office building was actually a single level house that the pastor used to live in before it was converted to offices and classrooms. Since I was paying $30.00 for electric the church allowed me to plug my motor home in to their exterior wall so that I wouldn't have to run my generator. For only paying $30.00 a month a got a lot of perks. I was told by the pastor that I could use the bathrooms in the church office to shower, shave, and all other bathroom functions. The pastor also mentioned that I could use the church kitchen whenever I needed to cook something. I kept pretty wierd hours since I was a young bachelor and we often returned home late from concerts so the church staff got used to seeing me stagger into the office half asleep to shower or use the bathroom. The staff got thought it was funny that I would shave my head in the bathroom and come out and ask the youth pastor if I missed any spots.
There were a lot of fun memories of the church office as the youth pastor and I hit it off very well and we liked a lot of the same things like golf, music, and eating. He taught me how to cook different meats, even beef jerky. He and the rest of the office staff thought my food choices were funny. I was a young bachelor and a starving musician and I was trying not to mooch off of Mom and Dad as much as possible so I was very creative with my grocery shopping. I remember when the grocery store ran a special on Kraft mac & cheese for $0.39 per box. I decided to do the right thing and stock up while it was such a bargain. I bought 72 boxes of mac & cheese and I also picked up some packs of white boil-in-bag rice. I usually ate 2 boxes of mac & cheese per day and on occasion I would eat a plain bag of rice with maybe a little butter and salt.
I would say that most memories of living outside of the church office were good, but I could feel some tension building from certain staff members that thought I was not being very responsible with my life and schedule (since I slept til mid-morning).
The Super Tortoise remained parked outside the church office for almost a year. so believe me there are many more stories to come. Stay tuned because we're close to finding out why I call this Life under the pastor's desk.

Netflix Rocks!

My family loves Netflix! We watch all sorts of movies from new releases to old ones. One of our favorite things to get from Netflix is tv on dvd. We love 24, House, Two and a Half Men, The New Adventures of The Old Christine, King of Queens, 7th Heaven, Cosby Show, Boy Meets World, and many more! We're on the 3 dvd's at a time and unlimited per month. So we pay less than $20.00 per month to have 3 dvd's at home at a time. As soon as we're done with one, we drop it in the mail and within a few days we've got another one to replace it. If you haven't tried it, you really should as it is great affordable entertainment! We love Netflix!