Monday Madness

Happy Monday! Seems like a funny wish to offer someone, but when you're slightly crazed, it's pretty appropriate. I used it with a few customers today.

Hey, I have a Birthday Shout Out to to Auntie Jean! Happy Birthday Jeannie! It was great to see you yesterday. I know that you're travelling so we're praying for safe travels.

Here's a shot of Jeff, Spencer and Jeanie. As long as I'm at it, Here's a Shout out to Jeff too. His birthday is the 30th.

Scouts tonight was pretty crazy. I am in charge of a big trip to Mackinac this September. It's called the Mackinac Rendezvous and they're anticipating 1400 scouts up there. To put that in to perspective, at summer camp there were less than 500 of us. Should be exciting! It's amazing how much paperwork is needed for a trip like this.

Have a great day!

Pat

Rain, Rain, go away

It's been a nice summer, not using a ton of electricity to cool the house, but we're a step from having to pull out the winter down comforter. Yesterday I cleaned up the bike, changed the oil, lubed the chain and then it sat. Too cold and rainy to ride. I've hardly ridden at all this summer. I went out this afternoon for a ride and got only 7 miles from home before I had to start dodging the rain drops. I wasn't going to get soaked today, so, I was home early. Maybe tomorrow...

The boys are still in recovery mode from their youth group week long camp. We keep waking them up during the afternoon, and then struggle to get them to go to bed at night. Teens, you have to love them. They were really affected by the trip, but getting the information out of them is like pulling teeth.

Here's lounging teen number 1

Here's lounging teen number 2

Here's Holly, working to fill the teenagers up with some popcorn

Have a great day!

Pat

Friday Follies!

It's a momentous occasion tomorrow, Maureen turns FORTY FREAKING NINE! That seems like a great reason to offer a Birthday Shout Out. What can I say, I've know her most of my life, only my 2 older brothers have I known longer. She's a pretty cool chick that's held up well for the years and she's still got what it takes to have some fun. Here's my "Montage to Maureen".

The early years, I was looking for a shot where she was as cute as a bug with a fist full of cards, but alas, it was not to be found. Here she is probably in 3rd grade.

This was one of the rare 4 generations shots; Ivy/Nanny, Maureen, Mom/Vonda and Grandma/Grace. The tales I could tell about the women of this family!

Nearly the same vintage, but now we have me, Grandpa/Lawrence, Chris and Maureen. Do we look thrilled for the moment or what? And I wonder why my kids won't pose at this age?

From last Thanksgiving. Maureen and her pies. She's come a long way hasn't she! I really like this shot, I hope she does too, well, at least enough to forgive the others.

From this summer, she and Tom each took turns in this Aerobatic plane. You go girl!

After that, well, honestly, the week was pretty good, it had some highs, it had some lows, the boys are due back tomorrow really early and that's cool.

Have a great weekend!

Pat

Thursday thoughts

Random thoughts with no rhyme or reason...

Maureen's turning 49 - Yikes! That's my little sister!

The boys have been gone most of the week and we've not really done much with the time, we're middleaged!

I am coordinating a trip to Mackinac for the scouts and I'm tired of answering the same question many times.

Brett Farve is considering becoming a Viking. Stay retired, the endorsements will be enough. Of course as forgetful he is(Am I retired?) , he'd be a great poster boy for the Alzhiemers foundation.

I have become a minor fan for the Detroit Tigers, this only occured when the "classic rock" stations started carrying the games and that's the station that my garage radio is set to. By the way, they are ahead of the Twins.

Here's a random shot from our Blues on the Rogue from several weeks ago. This little cutie was more entertaining than the band.

Missing the boys,
Pat

Life gets so confusing!

I know, "long time no post!" My fault, I was: a) busy, b) trying to do some planning, c) Holly and I are home alone and the house echos without the boys, d) all of the above. Yeah, it's D for sure!

Work is pretty mellow, well, not really, but it's slower than I have had it before and it's OK. Working on some cool stuff and dealing with some tough issues with customers. But on the whole, it's a good gig! I have to travel to Texas soon, another trip to Iowa is bound to be needed and I just don't know how I can avoid an east coast swing in the very near future.

At Spencer's urging, we tried to set up a family reunion of sorts for Labor Day. Right after we posed the question about a get together we got an invitation to a wedding. Nephew Matt has met a beautiful girl named Karissa and "She said YES!" Very cool, wedding is set for mid September. Additionally, Nephew Taylor is coming home on leave and I would love to see him. Could we make all that work with no extra vacation? Probably not, but gosh it would be a fun few days, that's for sure.

The boys are at NTS, Never The Same Camp. It's a youth camp in New York. Wow, are they a long way from home or what? I know Dave, Taylor's been away longer and farther, but he's pretty close to grown up. Ian called tonight and they're having fun. He sounded so grown up on the phone.

All in all, pretty quiet here.

Have a great day!

Pat

Back to work

The road trip was a good one for me, and yet I still wanted to get back home. I am basically a home body, that's for sure. We had great weather and the corn is 5 to 6 foot high in the good fields.

We're getting ready for a weekend of Camping. We're going to Muskegon State Park again this year. We went there last year and it was a lot of fun. It's pretty cool, we have Lake Michigan within a 1/2 mile and 5 minute drive we're at Muskegon Lake. Pretty light trip this year, we'll have 10 scouts and 3 adults. I really enjoy these outings. I was talking to the gang at work about the outings and one of the ladies asked why I don't eat what the boys eat. "Well", I said, "it's like this, they don't plan well, they're not good cooks, some times they eat their lunch at breakfast and then go hungry. It's really about them learning to care for planning, cooking, cleaning and everything." All the guys are nodding, totally getting the concept of the boys learning to care for them selves. She asked who planned the meals? It's them. Who cooks? It's them. What if they ruin the meal? They'll learn. I ended with a statement that all of the boys could actually miss a meal and probably survive and in the long run, learn how to avoid that the next time. Not sure if she ever really got it, but that's ok, she's got a daughter, no son.

Today's shot is one of me and my sweetie. I am one lucky dude!

Have a great day!
Pat

On the Road Again!

Yep, I'm on the road again. I'll be out for most of the week. But before I go any further I have a few shout out's.

Vicki Dot, one of Holly's best friend's daughters has her birthday today. She is one of best people I know to pick on and I've been picking on her since she was really tiny. How tiny? She was about 5 weeks old when we met. Give it up for Vicki Dot. This is her posing, not sure what the story is, but it's probably a pretty good story.

I also want to thank Larry, Terri and Jake for a great time last weekend and while we're at it, how about a shout out for Jake's graduation party! Well done! It was a great day for a party, sunny, warm with a nice breeze. Lots of folks stopping by. It was interesting for me to see these folks. We get over seldom, but enough to know quite a few of the friends and neighbors and it was really cool to see so many all in one place. And the truck project, well, it's shaping up really nice. I took a few shots but none of them give the car the due that it deserves. Sorry Larry and Jake, the shots with you in them weren't any good.

I'm working on a customer perception issue with a team on a very focused event. Should be interesting. We're here until Thursday, so it's going to be a long week. We went to a great restaurant, Thunder Bay Grille, for dinner tonight. Interesting trip to the restaurant, Jerry missed the exit, but no worries, we just rode the clover leaf until we got to the exit that we needed. I wouldn't mention it, but it's not Jerry's first time missing an exit and using a clover leaf ramp to get back while on a trip.We're thinking about going to Iowa City to have dinner with one of the managers here. As an Iowa State grad, I have issues with going to Iowa City, home of the Iowa Hawkeyes, but it's for the team, so it'll be ok.

Have a great day!

Pat