An Ollie's Christmas

Well the big day was yesterday for my family and the annual gift exchange.  As you may recall we can only spend $10.00 and the gift must have been purchased at Ollie's.  The 2013 exchange may go down in the family history as one of the more unique.  It was hard to tell whose gift was the most sought after (or not) when one had the opportunity to steal from another.  I can easily say that no one went after the Belly Dancing Kit (complete with finger cymbals) or the motorized watering can.  But the book on string was popular.  However the most sought after was the four foot 3-d color yourself dinosaur.  Go figure!  Personally I ended up with a camo seat cover for the new car and dead mallard duck dog toy ( that was after giving up my rubber band loom and sparkling bands ).  Oh I almost forgot the Salvidor Dali shelf clock my sister gave all the men in the family (that's already in the family gallery).

 T Squared is going under the knife for a bionic knee today.  We'll get a report from Mrs Shifflander later.  Not much else going on.  Have a safe New Year's and we'll see you on the flip side.

CC

Winding Down

After several fun filled days with kids, dogs, son, and daughter-in-law we are now in the return to normal mode.  We had a great time over Christmas and hope everyone else did too.  We know that the holidays can be stressful (we have had our share), but it is always fun when we can all get together.  We still have my family gathering this Sunday and it is always full of surprises.  This will probably be no exception.  Since we all have everything we want or need we started a tradition years ago where each person buys one gift, max $10, and then we have a gift exchange.  The catch is that the gift must come from a certain retail es tablishment.  A good example was in 2011 you had to buy it at a truck stop.  I'll let your imagination work on that for a while.  But, my Dad looked great in the bright orange mad bomber hat.  This year everyone had to shop at Ollie's.  I didn't know what Ollie's was let alone that Toledo had one.  Ollie's is best described as Value City reborn.  I'm so excited I just can't wait until Sunday.

The JrSrs gathered Thursday at the casino for our weekly lunch.  The wait staff in the Scene wanted to know if we were back for the winter.  We must have made quite an impression last year.  Anyway I think there were nine of us.  Ther were too many conversations going on to tell you what was discussed, and since we in the casino no SOTD.   Watch for the SD's notices,  but I'm sure we'll be meeting there until the flowers bloom.

Have a safe and happy New Year.

CC 

Nothing Is Ever Simple

Have you ever notice this phenomena?  Last week I was having a problem with my email and contacted Buckeye for assistance.  They cleared up my problem quickly.  While still on the phone the Buckeye rep. asked if I might be interested in their phone system since they were running a special pricing program.  They caught me at the right moment since I had just paid our ATT bill and thought it was quite high since we just use local service.  So I agreed to talk with the sales people.  The short of it was we could save money by going to the VIP bundle, improve our Internet speed, and convert over to the Gateway DVR system (which the Nurse wanted).  The installation went off without a hitch.  That is until we tested the security system.  I had checked with Habitec and was told there shouldn't be any problem (we have an older system).  For some reason the security system wouldn't connect with the command center.  After about an hour of phone calls back and forth with the techs they decided my system needed to have a programing change.  The service call was scheduled (which I have to pay for) and the problem should be resolved. 
Well the tech showed up this AM,  and was totally unaware what the problem was and didn't have the ability to change the program.  His boss ( who I talked with) didn't include this vital piece of info when he wrote up the service order.  So now I'm waiting to be rescheduled and don't know when that will be.  This just confirms that "no go idea goes unpunished.

I wasn't able to make lunch yesterday due to a lunch meeting for TDGA business (held in the other room), but did stop by to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  And most importantly roll the bones.  I was glad to see a big group and no winners.  Everyone was in a festive mood. 

I received a letter from the township chastising me for blowing some of the snow, they pile knee deep at the end of my drive, back onto the street.  I guess I could have buried the fire hydrant.  Enough said.

CC

The Mailbox

It seems like every year the snow plow driver likes to assault our mailbox. The first snow fall was no exception.  Two passes down Ford Road and I'm in repair mode.  And that's why I haven't put up a new one TTS.  However this time I don't think I have enough duct tape to fix this.  It's not on the ground yet (haven't looked this AM) but it doesn't look good.  It's off to Home Depot later today.

Speaking of snow.  I used the snow blower more times this season than I did all last year.  Normally I'm of the opinion that God put it there and he'll remove it when he's ready.  But the Nurse felt otherwise and was concerned about getting out of the driveway.  So I fired it up and cleared as much as possible before running out of gas.  I did go to the gas station and will say the roads were quite bad and was very happy we had plans to stay home last night.

We had a good crowd for lunch Last Thursday.  Even TTS was there after missing most of the fall for a variety of reasons.  It was good see him.   Since we couldn't play golf we just rolled the bones and went our separate ways.  One close call, but no winners.  Thank goodness since the money is on deposit at the casino (just kidding).  Plans are to meet again next week. Watch for the SD's email.  Starting in January we'll met at the casino until the club reopens in the spring.

CC

The Celebration

Last week was my father's 90th birthday.  The nurse and I took him out for lunch on Thursday and then we had a big family gathering on Sunday to cap off the celebration.  We gave him his choice for lunch, and he picked the Golden Corral.  If you never had the pleasure (the Nurse and I hadn't) it was a real experience.  True to the TV commercials they have the Towers front and center.  Now I can't say they are the 8th wonder of the world, but they are unique.  The buffet had something for every palate and in all honesty what I had was pretty tasty and well prepared.  Since the Nurse and I were rookies we were taken under the wing of a regular and shown the ropes on how to pace yourself.  My dad seemed happy,  but was disappointed that there wasn't any shrimp at lunch.

The family celebration was big affair with four generations present.  The ages ranged from 90 to 9 months.  All were well behaved including my son's two dogs.  Well the small one did jump on the table and steal some cake when no one was looking.  The big one just waited patiently, with sad eyes, for handouts.  My daughter-in-law had a special cake with a casino theme that was popular with all the young boys because of the icing.  Since my dad requested that he get no gifts we gave him 90 $1.00 lottery tickets (scratch off variety).  He called this morning to say he won $46.00 and had two entries for the drawing to be on the Saturday night lottery show.  With his luck he'll probably get picked.

I'm still learning about the new chariot.  But yes it will parallel park itself. The time I tried was a little unnerving, but was really slick.  Plus, we now have ham for Christmas dinner.

I won't comment on the big game, but am still a little bummed out about the result.

See you Friday for lunch.

CC

Where Were You?

I showed up yesterday at the training table, but I was the only one.  The weather was just too good to not think about playing golf and I thought there would be others of the same mind set.  I guess I was wrong.  I played anyway and lost $5.00 in my own field skins game (think about it).  It was really a pretty nice day to play and I had the whole course to myself.  It was little wet, but I've seen much worse.  Looks like Eric and his crew have done a good job preparing everything for winter.  Based on the weather report Wednesday may be the last day to play for a long while.

We got the new chariot a couple of days ago.  I'm still trying to figure everything out.  There's a lot of new tech stuff that would drive TTS crazy.  I have to go back to the dealer for a parallel parking lesson.  They suggested I not try to use that function without some instruction first.  And, I have to pickup my own ham from the Honey Baked Store.  The My Touch system is really pretty cool, and I wish I had it before this.

Off to have lunch with the family patriarch.  He turns 90 today.  We should all be so lucky to have his health and mental alertness.  He still drives to the casino from Findlay to play blackjack (weather permitting) about once a week.

CC

Double WOW!!!!

Those were some finishes to the games on Saturday.  I knew the OSU vs Michigan was going to be close, but that was too close.  I give the Michigan coach credit for going for two after the TD.  I don't think they could have stopped OSU in OT.  Then follow that up with the Iron Bowl.  That may have been the best finish ever.  Although it is still tough to top the Stanford/ Cal game with the band.  Anyway now the Bucks have to take care of MSU and keep their fingers crossed.  Does anyone remember the game from 2003 for the national title?  This is starting to look very similar.

OTR called yesterday and wanted to play a few holes.  I had to pass because of Christmas lights and back spasms.  The lights I could have put off for a day but the back was too ouchy.  I've never had this problem before and thought it better to wait a couple of days (say Wednesday) before trying to swing a club.  Wednesday may be a good day to try for a few holes.  Keep your eye on the weather.

Laters,

CC