November 30, 2006 at 4:58 pm
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
My dentist appointment went well this morning. I can’t say anything bad about my dentist because I’ve seen his computer in the visitor’s log! No cavities, no problems. I was once again promised I could keep all my teeth until my expected death at 102.
I’m heading home now to meet the UPS driver. Finally, after nearly 9 months of spinning my wheels, I’ve convinced the company responsible to fix my grill! UPS is coming to pick it up today!
One more thing…confidential to **anonymous**…
I’d like to quote a country music song for you. Perhaps that will shed some light…
“why is the rich man busy dancing while the poor man pays the band? They’re billing me, for killing me. Lord have mercy on the workin’ man.”
November 30, 2006 at 9:05 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve made it out of the house and to my early dentist appt. In fact, I’m at least five minutes early.
I didn’t take the time to get a handful of Oreos…my hygienist loves me.
I left Lily still having breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa. I’ll meet them all for lunch after Lily’s art class.
Very pleasant here this morning-no real signs of the fronts trying to get through. Sounds like we’ll see more weather as we get into Saturday.
Raining here this morning. Why? Because I listened to my wife and watered the yard last night.
I’ve got a mountain of work today. I don’t have an “in box” – I work with a piling system. My in pile barely stacks. I think my coffee cup is under it somewhere.
As I left this morning, Lily chased me to the front door to give me a kiss and hug good-bye. I whispered to her..”be good today!” She said “ok” and whispered back in my ear, “If I”m good, can I have popcorn for lunch?”
Here are some ways to maintain your nutritional balance when you fly.
Eat breakfast. Start your day with fiber-rich whole-grain cereals or oatmeal. The fiber will keep you feeling full longer and keep blood-sugar levels on an even keel.
Drink your OJ. The hundreds of nutrients in 100 percent orange juice help boost your immune system, giving you a better chance of warding off cold and flu germs floating around crowded planes.
Make your own “sky trail mix.” Try peanuts, almonds and raisins or other dried fruits. Healthy fats and stomach-filling fiber will keep you going, and this combo will be much lower in sodium than the airline’s onboard snack mixes. You want to cut down on sodium, because all that sitting can lead to puffiness and even ankle swelling.
Watch what and when you eat. Already flipped through all your magazines before takeoff? You might be tempted to reach for food as entertainment. So make sure to ask yourself if you are really hungry.
If it’s mealtime, the good news is that most airports have healthier choices, including freshly made sandwiches, salads, yogurt and even sushi. A salad is fine, but try to make sure it contains some kind of protein, such as chicken, turkey, ham, eggs or cheese, to keep your blood sugar even. Keep in mind that stress can drive your blood-sugar level below normal.
Buy bottled water on the concourse after security screening to drink while you wait and to take on board in carry-on.
Watch the alcohol at altitude. You and your skin and your brain can really get dehydrated in a pressurized cabin. Alcohol can accelerate dehydration. If you’re at the end of a long travel day and you want a drink to unwind, that’s fine. But make sure to double up on water.
Order a nutritious meal. If you happen to be on a flight that serves a meal, know that you can order what you want ahead of time. Airlines request a minimum of 24 hours’ notice. Special meals often include fruit for dessert.
November 26, 2006 at 8:47 pm
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
It’s finally Sunday and it’s been a busy, busy weekend.
We got a lot done the last two days – the house is completely decorated for Christmas. While I put the lights up outside, Diane and Lily mowed the grass. I was up and down the ladder a hundred times and no major injuries. Yes, I still have neighbors who like to applaud when I ascend or descend my ladder successfully.
November 26, 2006 at 1:00 pm
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
A few errands into town this morning…Home Depot for some replacement Christmas lights, batteries and a new plunger, Target for some shorts for Lily, JoAnn’s for some Christmas village extension cords, and finally Publix for groceries.
We’ve had our lunch and Lily is going down for a nap. I’m heading outside for some exterior luminiscent decor. No Buccaneer game today, so it’s a good day to finish up some of the weekend’s projects.
Gorgeous again today – mid 70’s, sunny with a slight breeze. Windows open, AC off!
November 25, 2006 at 8:59 pm
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
Busy day around here today. Hope you were able to catch at least one of the many times Lily CAM was on. We did a lot of decorating around the house today. The weather was beautiful – mid 70’s, sunny, nice breeze – so we moved from inside projects to outside projects as we wanted.
The tree is decorated and most of the inside decorations are up. Lily has completely forgotten about the pilgrim salt and pepper shakers that were on the table. Now, she’s all about the tree, the lights and the Diane’s Christmas village. Tomorrow, we’ll try and get most of the outside done.
FSU lost to the Gators earlier this afternoon. Really, after the way our season has gone, most of us discussed losing to the Gators with our therapist months ago. Actually, losing by just 7 points was at least something.
Lily is upstairs going to sleep. Weezy and Skeeter are both worn out for the day. Weezy is sitting on the chair beside me snoring. All the windows are open and the neighborhood is quiet. It’s Saturday Movie Night for us. Not sure what we’ll watch, but I’m looking forward to doing anything but walking up and down the stairs or getting up and down out of the attic!
November 24, 2006 at 1:03 pm
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
The helicopters are hovering over the mall areas and broadcasting live coverage of the madness. We made no plans to hit the malls but we did go to Lowe’s and get our Christmas tree and some poinsettias for the front. I woke up briefly around 5am and thought about getting up and going to Best Buy…ok, not really! Lowe’s is it for us today…maybe a trip to the grocery store if we have to. I’ve got a hankering for pumpkin pie that won’t quit.
Lily is taking a nap and we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon decorating.
Bucs lost to the NFL Cowboys of Dallas last night. Our season is over. Just about the only thing we have to look forward to football related is the outside chance FSU has of knocking out the Gators tomorrow. FSU is now bowl eligible, but which bowl remains a question.
Absolutely gorgeous weather in Central Florida today. Mid 70’s, not a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze out of the north. The windows are all open, we all have shorts on. It’s a welcome relief to the windy, cold days we’ve had since earlier this week.
November 21, 2006 at 11:34 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
Don’t know if you’ve paid any attention to the little temperature graphs on my webpage or not.
You can tell a lot about the inside temperature graph. Like when the heat or AC comes on. I just checked… it’s still 50 outside but over 70 inside!!! Someone has the heat on!
November 21, 2006 at 11:23 am
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
I hope you are all looking forward to Thanksgiving as I am. Yippie.
I’m really looking forward to decorating this weekend. Lily is getting excited about the tree and lights and decorations. She isn’t going to know what to do with herself. She already has told us she wants lights on her play house.
Cold again this morning. 43 degrees last night but darn windy. It’s barely 50 out there now…and still windy!
Supposed to have been a slow week at work, but no dice. Seems everyone still needs stuff for next week.
November 20, 2006 at 12:15 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Florida is cold this morning, again. Jackets are out, velour sweat pants…the heat even came on last night for a couple of minutes.
I’m going to meet Lily for lunch now!
Good story. House/apartment on fire. Mom goes into burning building, once, twice, even three times. She saves all the kids, ends up in intensive care. She’ll live.
The best part of the story is the quote by the lady’s 10 year old son…
“She was never really that brave before,” 10-year-old Umar Naseer said about his mother. “Before she was always worried about stuff like nutrition and all this boring stuff. Now she was saving our lives.”
November 19, 2006 at 8:47 am
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
It’s about 7:40am, Sunday. It’s 38 degrees outside. 65 degrees inside. Lily got up at 6:30 and played in the living room with her puzzles.
Not sure what the plan for the day is. I doubt it will have as much excitement as picking up a new car and going to the Wiggles. Seems Saturday had something for everyone. FSU won and they are now bowl eligible. Not sure what kind of bowl gets the last place in the ACC. Might be the Big Fish Partners Bowl…hey, not a bad idea…
I’m sure grocery shopping will be on the agenda. There isn’t any lawn work to be done. I’ve still some light switches to replace upstairs. I replaced the thermostat yesterday and took care of the pool chemicals. The animals all got baths last weekend. I might be able to watch a little football and I told Lily yesterday we’d try and make cookies.
If cookies happen, I’ll turn on Lily CAM for you. Check back on the Vlog and I’ll let you know.
November 18, 2006 at 3:30 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Well, this is just torture. No, not because it’s the Wiggles. It’s actually very good and Lily loves it. The worst part is that I can see the football game on a distant TV, but I can’t make out the details!
November 17, 2006 at 9:24 pm
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
We have a new car.
I swear, there is nothing worse on this planet than negotiating for a new car. And since the middle of October, I’ve had my share of dealing with these people. We actually had one guy who wouldn’t hold the deal we had worked out while we went to lunch unless I gave him $20 to hold it.
Anyways, the nightmare stories go on, and they continued even through the deal we ended up with. After four dealerships, 3 near deals and looking at at least 15 different cars – we settled on a Nissan Pathfinder. The same car I worked on for almost three hours yesterday and walked away from. (Which actually felt kind of good on account of the jerk I had trying to “close” me.)
Late this evening, the dealer called and gave me the number I wanted. The exact number I asked for. We went into this saying we would do it if the car and the deal was perfect and we got it. Honestly, I must be a hard sale or something because I made absolutely no friends along the way and I expect they are just as happy to not hear from me as I will be to not have to see them.
So, tomorrow we pickup our car and say good bye to our dear green Nissan Xterra with 62,000 miles on it. Lily will be disappointed since all she has said she wanted was a “new, pink car”. Not sure how we’ll explain this one, but she’ll manage.
A drug to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder? Right. How about take the drug or just move to Florida!?
Wait…I didn’t mean that. Take the drug, I’m sure the side effects are minimal. There is no room in Florida. We are sad too. Winter is terrible! (Hang on, I’ve got to open the window a bit more) Now, where was I? Oh, yes – the drug. Please – just swallow the pill. It’s a Happy Pill. Florida is a sad state. We are all really sad here. (Hang on again, got to move my chair back into the sun) Ok…just take my word for it…what were we talking about? Oh, yes – just stay where you are and no one gets hurt.
November 17, 2006 at 10:07 am
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
Hope you enjoyed LilyCAM this morning. By the looks of it, six people were watching this morning! I recognized the IP address from my friend up in Alaska – what was he doing watching at 3am, Alaska time?
Lily was a bit…what’s the word?….Let’s just say she was not quite herself. In case the audio wasn’t clear (and I know it isn’t great on that camera) she was upset she didn’t get more milk in her cereal. The fact of the matter is – no matter how much I pour in, she wants more. It was all down hill from there, at least for the next several minutes.
Cold morning – we hit 50 last night. I, of course, froze my butt off all night on account of my wife who adamantly protested my getting another blanket out of the closet. Looks like the inside temperature got down to 65. But the sun is out and it’s warming up outside. Supposed to be a gorgeous weekend.
Sorry I didn’t get to update much at all this afternoon. I was out dealing with the scum of the earth…but that’s another vlog entry.
I did get to surprise Lily this afternoon and go to art class with her! She’s quite the artist! She got to paint yellow and red on a wall mural. She’s certainly not a minimalist – she uses every gob of paint. She just piles it on – thick! There was snack time, a little more painting, story time, and (my favorite) Play Dough.
November 16, 2006 at 10:04 am
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
Not many Thursdays left in the year – 7 counting today and one of those is Thanksgiving.
I’m here a little later than usual for some reason this morning. I think we took extra time at breakfast. And it is garbage day, so the garbage had to go to the curb. Poor garbage guys – they have to work in the rain today.
It started raining just after 3 this morning. The lightning fired up around 5 and it really started coming down. So, I think we’ve all been up since then listening to the rain. We got 1.3 inches – not bad for November. The clouds are supposed to break before noon and then it gets breezy. The forecast for the next week is highs in the low 70’s and lows in the 50’s and sunny – not bad for November.
Diane and Lily have art class. I’ve got to ship some pineapple, some guava and I just got an order of coconut in the fax when I got in this morning.
By the power vested in me, by the great unincorporated town of Brandon (the largest unincorporated town in the country, by the way) I hereby order the Brandon Kohl’s closed, effective immediately.
November 15, 2006 at 3:17 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
It’s getting to the point that the same good news about certain foods, and the same bad news about others just keeps getting recycled. I think we get the picture now… chocolate and occassional glass of redwine is good for you and Steak n Shake burger, large fries and a strawberry shake is bad.
November 15, 2006 at 11:32 am
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
From where I sit at work, I have two windows facing west, and two big glass doors that face south. It’s a nice corner view of the parking lots actually. I can watch the squirrels, an occassional fox and several hawks. Or the smokers.
I also see the front patio area where anyone who comes to the building who wants to smoke must gather.
If the smokers don’t “gather”, they pace, and walk the parking lot. And since I have two sides out of which to watch them, I get a good idea of how much time these folks spend outside smoking.
One guy, as of 10:30 this morning has taken FOUR smoke breaks. And he tends to just hover around my doors and windows. How does this guy get anything done all day? I don’t know if he works in my building or one of the adjacent offices, but he’s got a pretty sweet situation if he can spend that much time during the day taking leisurely walks.
November 15, 2006 at 10:22 am
· Filed under Vinnie's Head
It’s a gorgeous morning in Central Florida today. Slept with the windows open again – just the perfect combination of temperature and sounds. Until about 5:50 this morning when Lily got up and joined us.
And she wasn’t tired – no way she was going back to sleep. And I’ll let you in on a little secret about Lily: She is like RainMan when it comes to her blankets. They have to be perfect. No one knows what she wants, but they never touch her the way she wants them to, or they are too short, or too bunchy. It’s always a fight when she gets in our bed because she can never get the covers right. So I fought with her for about 30 minutes and kicked her out of the room to go play in the living room while I tried to sleep for a while.
She and Diane are off to music class and the library this morning. I have lunch here in town with a friend (I’m hoping for BBQ!!!).
