i just got back from a nice dinner with mom and jim over at the barn door in millersville. can’t beat the petit filet mignon and crab cake combo. there is a story that some might tell about how my dad may or may not have crashed into the barn door one night while he was attending college at the ville. makes me smile every time i got there. anyway it was good to get some good grub in my stomach as i was working the hangover yet again this morning. last night was a blast. quaye, lance, and i started out with dinner and a couple of beers over at doc holliday’s over by F&M. and the running pun for the night started there when quaye asked the waitress for a side order of the spicy slaw. it was simple stupid humor at its pinnacle. ate too much and needed a nap? spicy slaw would make the perfect pillow. lance said the only way he would eat it was if it was off of the waitress. understandable i guess. the other thing at doc’s was all the creepy animals mounted on the walls. their eyes would follow you around the room. and by the end of our stay there we were convinced that they were all part of some elaborate surveillance scheme hatched by the people that worked there. even the short hostess was in on it (hobbit love for veg). after doc’s we made our way over to the house of pasta. there we met up with quaye’s brother and wife, both named chris, his cousin and his wife, the former jessica witmer who we went to high school with, mike booth, who i have know since third grade i think, and mike roschel and his wife (known roach since kindergarten i think). a couple of hot chicks at the bar and good conversations. also ran into heather funk who i hadn’t seen since we graduated. we all thought she was real hot back then. it is odd how some of those girls become average after a couple of years. and of course the average ones get hotter. i think that is a law of thermodynamics or something. you know, transferance of heat. and while i had a good time meeting some of the girls at the bar, none of them would join us for the next leg of the night at the blue star. something about somebody getting shot there a couple of weeks ago. i don’t know. they had a pretty funky band there last night. it is hard to describe there sound, but it was good. kind of a ska, polka, hippie, grunge, german rock type of sound. i think we closed the joint but i am not sure. either way, it was off to denny’s for grub. i couldn’t go without getting one of the slam breakfasts at 3am. mandatory for me. booth and quaye went with burgers. no spicy slaw though. then the drunken surreal part of the night for me was taking booth home. see, he lives on my old street. harvard ave. is where we lived when mom was married to bart (her second husband) back in the day. over fifteen years ago as a matter of fact. but the weird part was that booth lives on a part of harvard ave. that used to be a corn field when we were growing up. driving through the old neighborhood i could help but have the flashbacks of riding our bikes around there. summers at greider park. playing army throughout the alleys. wiffle ball in the field behind west end fire hall. same place jas bit it on his bike and had macadame stuck in his teeth. building forts out of cardboard boxes that we got from the dumpster of the appliance store a couple of blocks away that were awesome until the next rain. times when the most dangerous thing was crossing columbia ave. on your bike to get to rebman’s or jamesway for the newest g.i. joe guy. its odd at times having so many places where you feel at home.

the drive up wednesday night was pretty good actually. falcone, blue (rich’s 130lb. great dane), and i climbed into his mini van around 6pm and made it into lancaster, PA around 2:30am. one might think that blue would simply lay in the back of the van for the whole ride, but since he is more of a people dog he likes to be right up front with you as a co-pilot. lets see those nascar guy turn laps with the 20lb head of a great dane on their arm. he is a great dog though. and it was a good trip. so then yesterday, around noon, ruby and the kids got to mom’s house. kayla and ethan are both growing like weeds. and they are absolute pistols. crack me up. we all went over to meem and pop’s place at brethren village around one. it was a packed house. or apartment i should say. uncle dave, his wife beth, their two boys matthew and joshua, ruby and the kids, mom, jim, great aunt lois and her husband jim, meem, pop-pop, and i. all in the living room of their apartment. interesting is the best way to describe this clan. jimbo and aunt lois are usually at each other pretty quick with the ribbing. and matt and josh are pretty quiet kids. that is one of my fears if i haven’t mentioned it. quiet people scare me because you never know what they are thinking. anyway, so we all head down to the dining hall for our thanksgiving day feast. or rather turkey, two sides and a dessert. but you could add a third side for extra. which i had to do since the last thing i had eaten was taco hell around 9pm the night before. we sat at three tables, and i was with meem, pop, aunt lois and her husband jim. the meal was……nourishing? i don’t know. and the service was lacking. i wasn’t expecting five star service with the wait staff consisting of high school kids working part time at an assisted living dining hall, but out guy was out of it. at one point ethan asked for something and jimbo gave it to him. he said thanks. kayla followed up with “he got manners.” these kids crack me up. nothing funnier than a five year old white girl throwing out some ghetto slang every once in awhile on thanksgiving. we finished up the meal and aunt lois informed us of her GIRD which was acting up. left a couple of us looking like the RCA dog until she said that it was gastro intestinal reflux disease. and if she couldn’t burp she might regurgitate. nice. then we went back to the apartment to watch some football. dave and jimbo talked about the eagles for awhile even though they weren’t playing. i hate it when philly teams are in first place. and i hope the panthers beat the eagles on sunday. then jas and the new dog luke came. i love seeing my brother. and this dog. a nine motnh old brindle colored bull dog. i will have a pic soon. his lower jaw is just parked right out there. adorable. and if he ever grows into all of that loose skin, he is going to be huge. but jas, ruby, mom, the kids and i went outside to throw the football around and bs. nice being with family. then around seven we all said our goodbyes as jas’ family was heading up to dad’s and mom, jim, and i were heading home. the distance is really tough sometimes. even when you are together, because you wish it lasted longer. and after we got home my boy quaye called up. time for some much needed alcohol therapy with the boys. so we headed downtown to the blue star, where we met up with ryan and lance. we parked at a table close to the door so we could keep an eye on the incoming talent. it was quite an eclectic crowd. but fun to watch. it was good catching up with them and having some yuengling lagers. then quaye dropped me off and i poured myslef into bed to end my turkey day. i hope you all had a great thanksgiving as well.

giddy up, its hump day. not a whole lot of enthusiasm behind that one. not only do you get the wednesday part of hump day, but its hump day as in the 9 hour hump from NC to PA for turkey day. and since the new company vacation deal is TOWP (time off with pay) hours and you have to actually take the time off for holidays (i.e. waste vacation time for holidays), i won’t be able to head north until after work today. that is right. a 3am possible arrival in lancaster. probably closer to 4am with traffic. did i mention that i love the holidays? there is probably a reason i didn’t mention that. along with the holidays you get the annual jockeying for time with parents. one of the added bonuses of the divorced parents i guess. and this is even more difficult since i now reside in NC. whereas when i was in PA i saw them all more than once a year. not to mention the fact that when we were younger jas and i were together for the holidays. now he has his own family, so sometimes i am flying solo on the decision making. thanks to brother jas for reminding me that it would be a lot easier if i moved back to PA. appreciate it. but my whole turkey day vacation will be spent in lancaster. i haven’t seen mom and jim since they came down here to visit in febraury. and i have see the yergs a couple of times because of family gatherings. so i guess it is only fair. the guilt sucks though. so i had VB last night. and i usually rely upon that to work out some of my aggressions for the week. blow off some steam. so i hustled through traffic to make it for the six o’clock match only to find that the other team was a no show. oddly that had the adverse effect of what i was looking for in my volleyball night. no steam blown as it were. but i played in the match with the irish car bombs since they were short, which was okay. and it was a good time watching make ends meat win their first game and match of the season. they are a fun bunch to watch or play against. and then afterward a couple people stuck around and we played a game of three’s. you know i have always thought of myself as a pretty laid back kind of guy. but lately my friends down here are telling me that i need to find an outlet for my pent up frustration. i do get fired about little things pretty easily i guess. work is stressful, but isn’t it supposed to be? the romantic life is a book in and of itself. miss the family and friends in PA. and the rest is just filler i guess. i don’t know. it might not be until after the holiday until i write again, unless i can get on up in PA. talk at you all later.

giddy up, its hump day. not a whole lot of enthusiasm behind that one. not only do you get the wednesday part of hump day, but its hump day as in the 9 hour hump from NC to PA for turkey day. and since the new company vacation deal is TOWP (time off with pay) hours and you have to actually take the time off for holidays (i.e. waste vacation time for holidays), i won’t be able to head north until after work today. that is right. a 3am possible arrival in lancaster. probably closer to 4am with traffic. did i mention that i love the holidays? there is probably a reason i didn’t mention that. along with the holidays you get the annual jockeying for time with parents. one of the added bonuses of the divorced parents i guess. and this is even more difficult since i now reside in NC. whereas when i was in PA i saw them all more than once a year. not to mention the fact that when we were younger jas and i were together for the holidays. now he has his own family, so sometimes i am flying solo on the decision making. thanks to brother jas for reminding me that it would be a lot easier if i moved back to PA. appreciate it. but my whole turkey day vacation will be spent in lancaster. i haven’t seen mom and jim since they came down here to visit in febraury. and i have see the yergs a couple of times because of family gatherings. so i guess it is only fair. the guilt sucks though. so i had VB last night. and i usually rely upon that to work out some of my aggressions for the week. blow off some steam. so i hustled through traffic to make it for the six o’clock match only to find that the other team was a no show. oddly that had the adverse effect of what i was looking for in my volleyball night. no steam blown as it were. but i played in the match with the irish car bombs since they were short, which was okay. and it was a good time watching make ends meat win their first game and match of the season. they are a fun bunch to watch or play against. and then afterward a couple people stuck around and we played a game of three’s. you know i have always thought of myself as a pretty laid back kind of guy. but lately my friends down here are telling me that i need to find an outlet for my pent up frustration. i do get fired about little things pretty easily i guess. work is stressful, but isn’t it supposed to be? the romantic life is a book in and of itself. miss the family and friends in PA. and the rest is just filler i guess. i don’t know. it might not be until after the holiday until i write again, unless i can get on up in PA. talk at you all later.

i was pretty fired up about having people over on friday night because it had been a long week and i needed to blow off some steam. so after work i cleaned up the joint. spic and span baby. even mopped the floors. stocked the fridge and then took a power nap. weird thing here in the south, everybody brings beer when you have people over. i don’t know what it is. back in PA, when you invited people over for a gathering, you (as the host) would provide all necessary beverages for having a good time. of course if a guest would have a weird taste in beer or wanted some sort of liquor (note: a good host might also have any of the big three in liquor as well. whiskey, rum, or vodka), then they are welcome to bring it. a fair percentage of the people that walked through the door had at least a sixer in their paws. i am stumped. but we had a fair crowd. both the new guys, william and tommy, showed. but neither of them had ever played asshole before. library dwellers obviously. windy and her hubby came. a rare solo mission for AD. melissa and chad. falcone. cookie and her little sister jennifer (LC or little cookie). and myself. i think that is everybody. the appearance of jennifer was nice as usual. its a rare treat. maybe once a season she come over to hang out with us geeks. and she is always nice enought to try and educate me on the proper ways to pursue, or not pursue women. a nice conversation where her and cookie sit there and explain to me why i am single. but a good time was had by all. and there will be pictures to follow in the coming week. needless to say i was a hurting buckaroo on saturday. but i told AD that i would help him over at the house. so crawled over there and painted his upstairs bathroom for him. it feels good to do stuff like that. at least i am not at home just lying on the couch. of course that is what i did saturday night. a moe’s steak homewrecker, charlie’s angle full throttle, hulk, and a klondike bar. yesterday, the birdman actually waited until 9am or so to call me. usually its a 7 or 8am thing. so we got so people together to watch the panthers lose. it really was a great game though. but after the game, italian sausage on the grill, and a couple of beers i was ready for a little nappy poo. so i slugged out the rest of my sunday with football on the couch. i am hoping this is a quick work week. i can’t wait to get up to PA wednesday night to see the fam and friends. back to work.

thank God it’s pay day friday. its like a holiday that comes twice a month. you sit in the cubicle everyday wondering about whether or not anybody cares about what you do, and then pay day hits. and all is right with the world. or something like that. and the weather? it is supposed to be sunny and in the mid seventies all weekend. its freaking november! did i mention that its great being in the south. minus missing family and friends of course. but the holidays are coming. giddy up! so last night was pretty laid back for me. just cooked up some spaghets and had a couple of glasses of lambrusco before hitting the sack. my latest guilty pleasure though kept me up til midnight. its MXC on spike tv. i don’t know if anybody else has seen this, but it is a riot. they call it MXC, supposedly short for most extreme elimination challenge. i know, the letters don’t even match. but it is an asian game show where these average people get the crap kicked out of them on gauntlet type challenges. and then these two guys do commentary in english that is hysterical. they do one competition where they have to run across plastic rocks in a pond, but not all the rocks are secure. so you might see them step on the wrong rock and just go down. or the one where they run across giant spinning logs and fall in between them. some of these people take some real punishment. but the commentary is priceless. anyway. its friday and everybody has had a long week, so tonight might be filled with debauchery, tomfoolery, or some sort of bally who. don’t know. back to work.

its looking to be a gorgeous day here in the queen city. sun is shining. dew on the grass. traffic wasn’t too bad. makes me want to wax poetic. yesterday afternoon i got a call from ron who runs the wednesday and thursday night VB leagues for CSC and he was in an accident tuesday night (he is okay, but his neck and back were killing him) and he wasn’t able to do volleyball last night. so he wanted me to sub for him. no problem. and the first team of the night was going to need me to play for them since they were going to be short a guy. no problem. so i get there a little before 6pm and there stands amy. by herself. problem. first of all, i love play ball with amy. we played some six before and she also plays on tuesday in my league. found out last night that she is a furloughed flight attendant. nice. so her and i had to take on a team of four. we could have forfeit, but why not play it out. get some practice in. try to make it interesting. i was game since my indoor swing started to come back to me the night before. now, let me just say that there is a certain underlying ethics in volleyball. an unwritten code. at the very least a general understanding among those that know the game. there is no honor in playing a lessor number of players with nothing but straight cheese. four good players with decent sets throughout the whole match and they dinked a good 90% of the time! for the love of pete, PLAY the game! i was sweating like it was my job. we dropped the first game 25-5. ouch. that is when i started getting hot, because they were also giggling to each other about their cheap play! but we still had to pick our points. amy shanked a pass once and rather than killing myself to get it i let it go so that i might get a closer ball later. the comment from the other side of the net? “nice hustle dude.” you have got to be kidding me?! that was it, i was swinging away rest of the match. whether their was a girl on the other end or a guy, i didn’t care. we dropped the second game 25-16, but we were in it. so the third game my butt was dragging, but i wanted to take one from them. it was tight. but we ended up losing the third due to the time constraint. it was 21-18 when time ran out. oh well. amy played great and it was a good work out. we would have beat them with just another player i think. the rest of the night went smoothly, and i think that moving up to the next level will be no problem for us. i am actually looking forward to it. if not just to play that team again. so i am just going to pound through another day here at work. check you later.

is it possible to have a dreary 70 degree day in november? i don’t know, but it sure as hell is happening today in charlotte. one of those days you have to drive around with the lights on all day. a little bright spot in the day though….happy birthday to my aunt bea jo! i called her this morning and wished her a happy birthday. its great talking to her and i need to do it more often. have a good one beaj! last night was volleyball night. the games are getting a little better as the season progresses. and we are trying to get a little better with the rules. that way it doesn’t look like one of those games where everybody has a beer on the sideline and your net system is composed of two poles with eye bolts on them that are secured by concrete inside an old tire. and Dig This remained undefeated last night. its nice working there because i get to warm up a little more before my match. and i felt like i was getting my rhythm back last night too. had a couple of nice hits. but by the third game i felt guilty for swinging away against a team that couldn’t keep up with us. and the rest of the teams seemed to have a really good time last night, which is the point of the league i guess. so that is good. anyway, i have to get back to work. everybody have a good one.

l-i-v-i-n, livin’
hey kids, another tuesday, barely still morning, in CLT. yesterday i felt good all day because i had one of those fire drill type requisitions that crossed my desk last week and i got the job done quickly. not to mention i saved a boat load on the deal. just that whole feeling of a job well done. and it was nice to get feedback from the jobsite this morning telling me that i done good. nice little pat on the back. then yesterday afternoon i had to ask fitz if i could leave early to get my car inspected. he said i could because if i didn’t it would cause a shift in the paradigm later on. and yes he is taking a philosophy course as part of his masters pursuits. cracks me up. but he said he would rather deal with the shift now, instead of later. so i got the jetta “inspected” yesterday. apparently at some establishments in NC that constitutes starting th car, turning on the lights, putting it up on the lift, and spinning the tires. so i had a nice five minute conversation with jas while that happened. not a whole lot else last night. just some monday night football. oh, and if you get the chance, there is a link (obviously on the links page) to the jersey girl. you need to read her november 17th entry on her latest section. really thought provoking. love you all.

its starting as one of those dreary days here in the queen city, but i think it might clear a little bit. there were some good football games and some big surprises yesterday afterward. a couple of “whodathunkits”: carolina would be leading its division at 8-2 while the bucs are below 500? the bungles would beat the undefeated chiefs to work their way into a tie for first in their division with jas’ ravens? oakland would stink this bad? philly and dallas tied for first in their division? side note: does anybody remember the buddy bowls? and the burgh boys have more than likely chalked this one up as a wasted season. but they always do good on monday nights. and i think i talked to almost everybody in the fam yesterday. it gives me that peaceful feeling. and then last night was another evening with the falcones. we went over to bailey’s to watch the game. not a bad time. it was like a ghost town when we got there around 8:30. but then the really creepy part happened. it got really busy around 10:30. they were going to run karoake after the game they said. and the waitress said should probably would get out of there until 4am. packed bar at 11pm on a sunday. the burning question: what in the hell do these people do for a living that they can SHOW UP to a bar at 11pm on a sunday?! of course you could turn around and ask me the same question, but it was an unusual occurrence for me. anyway. so dad called me and he is done at TMI now, which i know makes him happy. making black smoke for the hills as he would put it. DFR. well gotta get back to work.