Vinnie’s Vlog

You’d think Lily would tire of blueberry pancakes every single Saturday and Sunday.  Not yet.

We had breakfast and Lily and I took off to run some errands.  We needed a couple of things to fix the pool.  Also got the water tested while we were there. (No adjustment necessary!)  Knock on wood, but this pool maintenance thing is a snap.  The stabilizer tube broke this week so Lily and I will have to fix that this afternoon.

We also went to Lowe’s for the Kid’s Clinic.  Today she made a tool box.  She got to keep the hammer too.

Then we went to Publix and did the grocery shopping.   Lunch was next and now she’s taking a nap.  Diane had an 11:15 hair appointment, so it’s just me and the dogs until either Lily wakes up or Diane comes home.  Kind of weird having an hour to play.  Not really sure what to do!  I’ve got quite a To Do list, but Lily insisted that I not do anything until she got up.    Nice that I have TV coverage of Buc’s training camp!

“A wedding anniversary is a ‘woman’s anniversary’, not a ‘man’s anniversary”

That’s what the last three New Jersey governors have in common.

State song?  Nope – New Jersey is the ONLY state in the country without an official State Song.  It is widely believed that although there is no song, there is an unofficial theme music which you might have heard during the shower scene of Psycho.

Yes, it’s time for the 3rd Annual Pick on New Jersey Day.   New Jersey was originally settled by the Delaware Indians.  I don’t know why the Delaware Indians were in New Jersey, but I think it has something to do with not being able to pump your own gas.

The Europeans first came to the stained shores of New Jersey in the mid 1500’s but due to the smell, colonies weren’t settled there until the 1600’s.

The first nuclear dump site was founded in 1625 and the first three-eyed fish was caught in NJ waters by 1630.  To this day, New Jersey is the only state with more Superfund Cleanup Sites than State Parks.

New Jersey was the first state to sign the Bill of Rights, which the early founders misinterpreted as giving them the right to levy a state income tax.

New Jersey’s only governor to make it to the Presidency was Woodrow Wilson who was responsible for the introduction of the graduated Federal Income Tax and a little thing we call World War I.

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamiltons famous gun duel took place in New Jersey.  To this day, New Jersey gun law still does not restrict the number of guns that can be purchased by an individual, doesn’t require gun safety programs for ownership, nor are safety devices required by law.

Despite the water and the air, small herds of deer populated the state until the introduction of the Volvo.  It is estimated that the Volvo S80 is responsible for driving the deer to near extinction.

Today, New Jersey is a thriving industrialized state with two airports and no football teams.

A few headlines from the third State in the Union….

New Jersey woman finds rocket launcher on her lawn…. Click here for Story

**  THIS ENTRY WAS APPROVED BY THE CENSOR WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE FROM NEW JERSEY **

Ahh…. the middle of the week.

I was on the road most of the day yesterday.  Nice to be out of the car finally.

Lily is off to school this morning.  A bit unwillingly at first, but then she and another little girl got into a conversation about the lip gloss they had both stolen from their mother’s and all was well.   I think she’ll have a good day.  She had a good breakfast.  She asked how much more of her cereal she had to eat and I said 5 bites.  “But I can’t count to five”, she said.  Hard to compete with that logic, except I happen to know she can count to 5. 

Lily was waking the cats up this morning ( I guess) and I heard this conversation with herself…

“There’s Big Guy.  And there’s Scoopie.  Oh!  And there’s Little Kitty and I’m going to catch her!”

So, another hot and muggy July day.  I think we’ve had 6 inches of rain or more in the last week.  Yesterday was one of our first dry days in the last 8 I think.

Obama Girls?  Guiliani Girls?  If I didn’t not-like Hillary so much, I’d make myself the first Hillary Dude.

Here’s a novel idea… let the snake and the pet settle things before you get involved.  Click here for Story

The weekend is winding down.  Sure was a busy one.  Our house goes through an amazing metamorphosis when we know we might have visitors.  It’s truly incredible.  Fresh paint, cleaned out drawers, closets, carpets cleaned…everything around here is as shiney and fresh as the day we moved in.  Well…almost.

Yesterday we hit Babies R Us for a few things.  Save for a box or two that needs to come down from the attic, I think we are ready for Baby Belcher Boy.

Pancakes again this morning.  This time with blueberries.  I’m stuffed.  They were good though.  And Lily ate like she hadn’t eaten in days.

Lily and I worked in the garage for a time this morning.  By noon or so, the sun has moved onto the west side of my house and the garage is simply too hot to work in.  After lunch and an attempted nap, we moved our operations to the back yard.  I had a section of fence that needed some repair.  We pulled a few weeds and cleaned off the pool deck which included a good hosing off.  Lily and I played in the pool for darn near 2 hours.  Then we came inside, vacuumed and made dinner.

Diane isn’t as comfortable and even moving from room to room, after me and Lily, is too much.   Thank goodness for HGTV (Home and Garden TV)  Now if we ever need to Flip Our House, or Decorate on a Dime – she’ll be ready.  I oversaw an episode she was watching where a couple of people were salvaging a house that had almost totally burned.  I think she was taking notes.  The cool thing about my wife is that after 5 or 6 hours of Redo My Bathroom, she switches to the NFL network.

No rain today…at least not yet.  There are a few clouds on the horizon so there’s still hope.  My neighbor’s sprinklers were on this morning.  Not sure why – we’ve had 7 inches this week.  My yard is a swamp.

Lily has school in the morning.  Other than a few other appointments, we have a regular ol’ boring week ahead of us.

Pancakes….check.

Grocery shopping….check.

Babies R Us…. check.

Lunch…check.

Lily napping… check.

Our WalMart was having a Harry Potter party last night.  That has me racking my brain trying to come up with a punch line for the question:   What do you get when you cross a redneck with a muggle?  I love the TV interviews of the freaks waiting in line for a book.  This guy on TV last night was so offended that the reporter suggested that he looked like a Harry Potter fan.   Harry Potter fans have as much a unique look to them as metal-heads waiting for a Marilyn Manson concert do, or jocks waiting to get into the gym do, or even Michigan snow birds on a Florida shuffle board court do.  Why would they be so offended for being recognized as such?

Click here for Story

I drove past a Dollar Store this afternoon that had a giant “CLEARANCE SALE” sign out front.

Am I the only one who thinks that’s funny?

It’s all down hill from here!

Lily had a good day at school.  The teachers seem to be as entertained by her as we are.

Power was back on at the office, but no water pumps so the building smelled of sewage.  I think I’ve lost my printer to the lightning.  In all, three transformers blew and the pumps.  It was a heck of a storm last night.  Impressive lightning – bolt after bolt.  I just knew we’d get hit at home.  I’ve just had my entire computer set up built up, upgraded and renewed at the office – so I was a bit worried about things there.  Like I said, I think the printer might be my only casualty.  More storms in the forecast for this afternoon.

I can’t tell you the name or names we have in mind yet…but here is one we found last night in our 100,001 Baby Name book.  I’m not going to tell you if this is on the “maybe” list or not…

Leax – it means “resembles a salmon”

Lily is off to school.  Poor Lily, those first couple of minutes are still a little rough.  But by the time I got in my car and drove away, she and another little girl were pointing and happily waving to me from the playground.

I’m at home today.  No electricity.  Here is a picture of the transformer that was hit in the storm last night.  When I pulled in, there were 3 TECO (electric company) trucks and about 30 people outside on cellphones.  I figured we were out, but went in and sat down to read the paper in the quiet.  My landlord came in ten minutes later – 5-7 hours.  And the transformer that was hit is the one 8 feet from my desk.  The lightning blew a fist size hole in the transformer box!

I have lunch with a customer today.  Nothing like being on the road.

My question of the day is…. Should a grown, 37 year old professional ever wear blue shoes?  I mean, of course, unless he was going yachting?  Or shopping for sailboats?

Anyways…not much time to chat – gotta hit the road.  Lily is dressed up real cute today…I need to get Diane to take a picture.

Dow trying to hit 14,000 today!  Yippie!

We sure know how to make a busy day out of things.  We were up making pancakes before 7 this morning.   Lily and I went to Lowe’s for a couple of things I needed and then did the grocery shopping.  Quite a lot already done before we even hit 10 o’clock. 

We vacuumed, straightened up, and made lunch.  Lily took a nap and, in fact, went down in record time – no more than 5 minutes in bed and she was gone!  She gave me strict orders to not do anything without her while she napped.  “Just sit on your butt and watch TV.  Don’t even work on the computer!”

Lily was up at 1pm and we got the smoker started and loaded with ribs and chickens.  Lily and I did a few odds and ends inside and outside and eventually found our way to the pool by 3 o’clock.  The pool killed 2 hours.

Dinner was at 5:45p, bathtime, story time and that takes us to now..8pm.  Lily is slipping off to sleep and it’s finally time to sit down for a little while.

But darn, those ribs were good tonight.  The chicken was delicious, but that was heading to the freezer for another night.  Fresh watermelon for dessert!  We’re all stuffed.

An equally busy week ahead of us.  Lily’s three days a week trip to school has us hopping a little early Mon, Wed and Fridays.  Diane has a doctor appt. tomorrow morning, I’ve got lunch with a customer on Tuesday.  Plus, we are starting to see the little things that we want done before the baby arrives.  Just little things, but still – enough that you really don’t feel like you can sit down knowing what’s coming.

Well, it’s the weekend…those wonderful days we work for all week!

I probably don’t need to write what we made for breakfast.  Lily was asking for my famous blueberry pancakes by 6:30 this morning.

We went to Lowe’s for the Kid’s Clinic.  Lily made a pickup truck.

After Lowe’s we went to the mall so Diane could pickup some things.  Dillard’s had some things on sale, which means we can shop for me.  Then we went to Crispers for lunch.  Now it’s nap time.

So, not too much exciting around here.  It’s hot – but that’s not real surprising considering it’s mid-July.  I think we’ve been hitting 90 or 91 just about everyday this week.  Not much rain this week until last night about 10pm – but even that was only a tenth or two.  Hopefully more today!

We made it to Friday!

I dropped Lily off at school and stopped a different Starbucks.  They don’t know me by name…yet…so I have to break them in.  The Starbucks is in a different section of town – completely different clientele.  This lady ahead of me in line ordered a coffee that might have included a mathematical equation.   If you’ve ever been to Starbucks, you know they write your coffee order on the cup – how much espresso, how much sugar, and flavors…that kind of thing.  I don’t know what she ordered but it included triple caramel,  whipped cream…and this is my favorite part… 3 Splendas and 3 raw sugars.

I found the coolest radio station on my satellite radio.  It’s a 20 minute drive from Lily’s school to my office and believe it or not, there is a Jack Benny channel.  Actually, I think it is Radio Classics or something – but at 8am, it’s the Jack Benny Radio show.  Pretty entertaining.

So, have a good Friday.  Not sure what’s going on this weekend.  I might paint some trim in the bathroom.  I think Lily and I will go to the Kid’s Clinic at Lowe’s tomorrow morning.  Other than than, no plans yet.  Sounds like a good pool weekend!

Hmmm…Babe-a-licious is parking in a handicap space.  Other than her obvious handicaps, I wonder what the deal is?

Hot this afternoon…probably 91 or so with a strong west wind that makes it feel like you just opened the oven.  No rain here, but it’s around.

I haven’t seen much in the news worthy of note.  Kind of a slow news day. 

Work has been busy – lots of phone calls both in and out.  My ear hurts from holding the phone up.   I did have a truck make a pickup and drive 1800 miles (that’s right…eighteen HUNDRED) until he realized he left with only 2 out of the 4 pallets of my order.  Other than that, it’s been a good day to catch up on phone calls and paperwork.

I heard from Brother Joel this afternoon – he’s doing good and sends his love.  He and I didn’t even get into discussing the upcoming football season, but instead talked about TV shows. 

I’m not really at liberty to discuss the exact details right now, but I sure got some exciting news this afternoon.  I’ll divulge more when I can.  Stay tuned.

Thinking about heading home soon and going swimming.  The pools is a comfy 88 degrees!  I got some amazing pictures with one of those disposable underwater cameras of Lily diving to the bottom of the pool.  I’ll get those posted as soon as I can!