My Frakkin Blog!

Well, we just got done watching that Christmas Classic - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. I have watched this show every year since I was a kid and when my older kids were just kids. Maybe I’ve changed, but, wow - I certainly saw this show completely different this year than any other year before.

Is it me or is this actually kind of a sad story?  It sorta makes all those reindeer, elves, and Santa Claus look like hypocrites doesn’t it?

First - the head elf completely disses Hermes because he wants to be a dentist instead of an elf - so - he sings this song about being a misfit and a nitwit - then runs away. Personally, I think he was discriminated against because he’s Greek?

Next - Santa and the reindeer make fun of Rudolph for being different. This kid can jump higher and further than any of those other reindeer, but, he is discriminated against just because he has a red nose?  And -Clarise’s dad says “No doe of mine will ever be seen around a red-nosed reindeer”  RACIST! So, Rudolph sings that same song about being a misfit and a nitwit - then runs away (editors note:  just how the heck is it that both Rudolph and Hermes knew the same song?)

Then, Hermes and Rudolph meet next to a Christmas tree.  Hermes announces that he is “independent” and Rudolph exclaims the same.  I never really noticed this next line - but - it’s a classic- Hermes then says - ‘Hey, let’s be independent together’ - I actually laughed at that line. Then they run away together.

Hermes and Rudolph run in to Yukon Cornelius after they both run away and Cornelius kinda looks over them while at the same time trying to hunt down that bumble!  First - I don’t know if we should really trust this bearded old man who’s been out in the wilderness on his own for a really long time - with kids!  Seriously, what’s up with that?  Rather than help them find their way back home to the adults - he takes them with him.  Wouldn’t that be like kidnapping or something?

On their journey - they come across misfit island where all the unwanted toys live.  How the heck did all those broken toys get there anyway?

Well - I think we all know the rest of the story.  Rudolph’s mom and Clarise go searching for Rudolph and get caught by the bumble - Rudolph, Cornelius and Hermes come to the rescue - Hermes goes all Dentist like on the bumble and then Cornelius goes all suicidal attack and they both go over the cliff.  Well, after that the survivors all go back to the North Pole where Rudolph and Hermes are suddenly accepted!  What hypocrites!!!

Additionally, Santa makes a special trip to misfit island and picks up all those so-called unwanted toys.  First - if Santa is supposed to be omnipotent and know everything - why didn’t he know about these toys?  If they really are unwanted toys - how the heck is he going to unload them?  Is he going to drop them off with all the poor kids and cheat them out of the new unbroken toys?  Sure - what the heck - they won’t know any differently, right?

Oh well..maybe I’m gettin to be an old fuddy duddy or something.  In any case, I still think it’s a great show.  As a kid, I know I really enjoyed it for what it was - a great Christmas story about some misfits who overcome adversity and help to save Christmas.

Well, of course, what is the next thing that happens all around this country after Black Friday?  Yup - the Christmas decorations start going up.  Well, I always do mine in two phases (mostly because I only have one day a weekend to do it.) - Phase I is all the outside ground ornamentals and decorations and Phase II is Outside lighting and inside.  Mary always does the inside work and decorates the interior.

So, like I said, I completed Phase I today.  I will put the lights up around the house next Saturday.  So, rather than post pictures of a half-complete decorated house - I will take all the pictures next weekend after I’m done.  I’ll take some pictures of what it looks like during daylight - and a set of what it looks like at night all lit up.

So - if I actually have any readers who follow this blog - you can expect to see some pictures next weekend!  Now that there are some decorations up - Ryan is getting extremely excited.  Kylie likes the decorations - but - she still doesn’t have an understanding of it yet.

Can you believe it’s less than one month from Christmas already?  Holy Frakkin’ Cow!

Well - better late than never!

Mary had to work today - so - it was just me and the kids all day.  We’re actually going to celebrate our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.  The day is going to be quite busy.

Anyway - Mary tells me that working on Thanksgiving day in a hospital turns out to be the same as any other day - extremely busy.  I can attest that hanging out with the kids on Turkey day isn’t any different than any other day I have them when she’s at work - extremely busy!

We had a good time today.  However, I realized that this is actually the very first Thanksgiving where I did not watch any football games!  And..you know what?  I hate to say it, but I didn’t miss it like I thought I would.

Considering how busy tomorrow is going to be, I’m not entirely sure I’ll get back out here - but - we’ll see.

Hope everyone had a great  Thanksgiving.

Well - like I said, I took tons of pictures at Saturday’s concert.  I figured I would share a few more of them here tonight.  I have so many to share - but - I promise, I will spare you all!  I don’t want to be known as that guy that shows the vacation pictures every time you visit the blog!  LOL - kinda reminiscent of the old slide projector vacation pictures thing, eh?

Here’s the first one - this is Murray saying hi to the audience

And..this one is Anthony.  I’m not entirely sure exactly what he’s doing there.

This one is Sam.  They were doing Rock-a-bye Your Bear.  If you don’t know the history - this is the guy that took Greg’s place.  Sam was one of the Wiggly Dancers and Sir Singalotta before they passed the yellow shirt on to him.  Apparently, Greg became too ill to continue performing.  That’s too bad.  I really liked that guy.  He had a great voice.

And..this one is Jeff.  Ryan really likes him…especially when he gets to wake him up!

This one is Henry The Octopus.  He’s kinda creepy if you ask me.

And, finally, here’s Dorothy the Dinosaur

Well..that’s it.  Between yesterday and today - that is all of the Wiggles and The Wiggles Friends!  We really had a great time there!

Hi All - as promised - here are a few of the pictures I took at The Wiggles Concert this past Saturday. I’ll only post a few up here tonight - I’ll post more up over the week - I got a lot!

First up - We got one really happy and excited boy here!

And..if you recall from yesterday’s post - I mentioned that Kylie started coming down with something just as we were leaving…here she is at the start of the concert - she laid in my lap the whole concert

And…here’s The Wiggles coming out in The Big Red Car

And..then I got a really great shot of Wags The Dog

And - this last one here is of Captain Feathersword. He slid down these silk …whatever? As you can see - by the time he got to the bottom - he ended up head first…that guy is a nut!

You can also get a good look at just how close we were to the stage! Way to go Mary! She bought the tickets. Anyway - that’s it for today. I don’t want to fill up the whole page today with pictures.

Like I said, I have many many more - but - I’ll go easy! LOL. I’ll just post up some of the really good ones. And..as I said yesterday, if you have young ones and haven’t experienced it yet - I highly recommend catching a Wiggles concert when they come to or near your town. These guys are great and the kids just love them!

I promise to have the pictures up tomorrow and Wednesday.  This past Saturday we took the kids to see the Wiggles in concert.  Both of them were absolutely excited the week leading up to it.

First - I have to admit - we’re Wiggles Groupies!  This is the 7th concert we’ve been to over the last 2 years.  In fact, the very first concert we went to was over in Orlando.  Kylie was only 6 weeks old and Ryan was 2.  One year, we went up to Carlisle, PA for my 25th reunion - yup - we planned the trip so that we stopped in Richmond to catch a Wiggles concert on the way up.  We’ve actually seen them in 3 states! LOL.

The very first concert we went to - we were up in the nosebleed section.  We’ve actually become insiders now and we get early release tickets.  We’ve been down on the floor every time since then.  This time, we were in the 3d row from the stage.  Wait until you see these pictures!

Ryan had a really great time.  Unfortunately, for Kylie - she wasn’t able to enjoy it.  She was fine on Friday.  When it was time for us to leave, she was just laying on the couch.  We knew she was starting to come down with something.  During the whole concert, she just laid her head in my lap.  By Saturday night - we ended up taking her to the ER at around 10:00pm with a 104.7 temp.  Poor thing - they had to catheterize her to get a UA sample.

Apparently, she caught some kind of virus.  She was fine on Sunday - and - apparently, she was able to get more of that concert than we realized.  All she could talk about was The Wiggles and Wags and Dorothy and Anthony!  Mary took her to the Pediatrician today for the follow-up.  She was talking up a storm with the Doc about seeing the Wiggles.  So - while it appeared she was out of it - she did in fact see and remember a lot more than we thought.

We don’t have any pictures of the kids because they didn’t get out in the aisles and dance this time - but - I will put up some of the pix over the next couple days.  If you’ve never been to a concert and you have little ones - I highly recommend it!

One of the great things about living in Florida is the great weather we have in “the winter.”  The weatherman says our high for tomorrow should be in the low 80’s!  Gotta love it.

This past weekend we went to Ryan & Kylie’s pre-school Fall Festival.  It is a fundraiser and festival all rolled in to one.  The kids had a really great time.  There were two big bouncers, a balloon guy, a karate exposition, a fire truck, lots of crafts and games, and lots of food!

The biggest draw was the raffle.  Since the beginning of October each of the classrooms have had the parents of the kids bring in items for the raffle.  Each classroom had a theme.  Kylie’s class was camping outdoors and Ryan’s class theme was cooking out.  There are 9 class rooms so there were 9 different things to choose from for the raffle.  Each raffle ticket was $5 apiece.

I bought 5 tickets and later Mary let Ryan buy another ticket.  I placed 3 tickets in a raffle for Toys for Girls and Boys - there must have been close to $300 worth of stuff in that one.  I put one ticket in A Day at the Spa - hoping to win something for mommy - and then one ticket in for Family Fun Night - which included lots of games, tickets to movies, gift certificates to places like Chuck-E-Cheese, and other family fun stuff.

The ticket that Mary let Ryan buy went in to the Toys for Girls and Boys.  Well, when the raffle started we were hanging out next to that table with all the toys on it.  At each table they went to they chose the nearest kid around that table to draw the tickets.  When they got around to the table with the toys - they were reaching for Kylie to come up and draw the ticket - she wasn’t having any of that!!!  So, they asked Ryan to pull the next ticket.

Ryan so much wanted to win all those toys that when they asked him to draw the ticket I was preparing myself for the big let down.  I was thinking - how could they possibly ask a 4 year old little boy to pull the ticket and then have them announce that some other kid won all those toys.  My chest was already tightening up just thinking about the look on his face as some other little boy or girl came up to claim that wondrous prize.

They held the bucket up above his head - he plunged his little hand in there and fished around a bit trying to grab on to one.  He pulled it out and was getting ready to look at it - mind you - he’s still 4 - so - he can’t really read yet.  He didn’t even get a chance to look at the ticket he just pulled out.  The head of the school grabbed the ticket from him before he could pull it down.

As soon as she looked at the table, her jaw dropped.  The D.J. with the microphone didn’t even get to put the mike up to her to announce the winner.  She just turned and looked at my wife and I with a stunned look.  Mary looked at her and said “Is it us?”

Yup - that’s right - Ryan pulled his own ticket in the drawing!  My first reaction was - whew - what a relief!  Then, it hit me too - Holy Cow!  He drew his own ticket!  Not one of the three that I put in there - but, the one that he “bought.”  Talk about a lucky boy!  He instantly became the most popular kid there.  Mind you - there had to be close to 50 or more tickets in for that raffle.  That was the biggest and most popular prize going.

I could list everything that was on that table - but - it is a VERY long list.  There was a sheet that came a long with the prizes that detailed everything on that table.  It filled up a full 8 x 10 sheet, single-spaced.  There were some toys that were beyond Kylie and Ryan’s age - we’ve already talked to Ryan and told him we were going to give those away to kids that don’t have toys - he was perfectly fine with that.

Now - on to the subject of this post - it was a beautiful day - not too hot, not too cold - sun shining all day long.  Later that evening while I was getting read for bed, I looked in the mirror.  I actually did a double-take.  Was my face a little pink?  Funny, I didn’t feel flushed.  Then I looked at my arms - and looked closer at my face - yup - I actually got a bit of a tan - on November 8th!  Awesome!  I’m never leaving Florida!

I won’t get in to my politics here on this blog - that’s not what this blog is about.  But - what I will say without a doubt is that I am really glad this election is over!

We’ve been inundated for well over two years with political speeches, political ads, political phone calls, and political flyers.  I live in a battleground state - so - for the last three weeks I’ve been receiving flyers in my mailbox every day that were about an inch thick!

One of my kids registered for a party opposite of mine.  So - we’ve been receiving campaign mail and phone calls from both sides!  OMFG!  The robo-calls were getting ridiculous!  It’s a good think I have caller ID.  While I never answered them personally, the fact is - they still went to my answering machine.  I was deleting at least 3 - 4 daily!

Who’s bright idea was it to make these elections last so frakkin’ long?  Does it bother anybody else that those Senators were getting paid by we taxpayers for the past two years even though they weren’t at work?  I know if I didn’t go to work for two years - I certainly wouldn’t get paid.  In fact - I wouldn’t even have a job two years later!

I’ve got a question - what happens with Biden’s seat?  He was re-elected for another term in the Senate in Delaware.  Surely, he can’t be both a Senator and a Vice President can he?

Oh - BTW - If you follow my other blog - you will know that I’ve been invited by Matt Urden of Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta to join him and other bloggers in a new endeavor - Inside Government .  I think I’ll be answering my own question really soon!

The purpose of that blog is to provide answers to the many questions that everyone has about the way our American government and politics work.  I’m really excited about joining that great team over there.  Go check it out and see who the other great bloggers are over there.

Well - there aren’t really a lot of them!  Sorry!  But - I have two separate sets - the first set is of the costume we got Ryan specifically for Halloween - that he asked for.  The second set is what he actually wore!

He said he wanted to be Wolverine for Halloween - here he is trying on his costume and posing.  Lil sis wanted in on that pic also!

Another pose for the camera. Watch those claws!

Our little Pirate Princess!  Unfortunately - this was the one and only picture she would let us take of her that night.  She’s finicky like that!

If you guessed he reverted back to his Batman costume for Halloween - you are correct!  I don’t know - he was sooo excited about being Wolverine - until the day finally came.  I guess he likes Batman over Wolverine.

If anything - he just has one more costume to wear now when he’s playing superheroes.

I tried to coax him in to getting a Superman costume also - but - he didn’t want it.  Not because he doesn’t like Superman or anything like that - his reason?

“I don’t have that curl on my head like he does.”

Oh well!

And - lastly - if you haven’t already done so - regardless of who you support in this election - GET OUT AND VOTE!  It’s your right and you earned it!

Have I mentioned that this is my favorite time of year?  One holiday after another!  While I have heard that the holiday season is the most depressing time of year for some - I can most definitely tell you that these are my favorite days - and - I seem to be happier now more than at any time of the year.

I obviously did not post up last night - being Halloween and all.  But - great fun was had by everyone.  I’ll post up pictures tomorrow.  First - Ryan was invited to a halloween party for one of his classmates.  We did some Trick-or-Treating around that neighborhood for about an hour after that party - then went back to our own neighborhood.

My neighborhood is absolutely great during the holidays.  EVERYONE gets in to it with the decorations and comraderie.  On Halloween - people come from other neighborhoods to trick-or-treat in ours.  Coming home last night -we must have passed at least 500 people on the main strip trying to get back to our house.  We live in the very back of the neighborhood.  There were police cars at the front of the neighborhood directing traffic to make sure people weren’t getting run over as hey enter the sub-division.

When we finally made it back to our house - we didn’t even bother going in the house - we just jumped out - locked the car - and started our journey.  Like with the Disney pictures at night - I didn’t bother taking any around the neighborhood - they would not have come out very well.  You’ll just have to imagine practically every home in a sub-division with about 250 homes all decorated for Halloween.  We have a few cul-de-sacs where they are one giant haunted house going from  home to home.

I can’t even tell you how many pounds of candy Ryan and Kylie collected last night!  Lets just say that daddy will be on a continual sugar rush for the next week or two!  That will lead me right up to Thanksgiving!  The in-laws are coming in for that.

The only down side to this holiday period is - I generally gain 5 - 10 pounds.  No problem - I’ll just work it all off in January.  Besides - we only live once!  If we can’t take the time out occasionally to enjoy ourselves and just be “bad” occasionally - then - we really aren’t living!  The key is moderation.  A 5 - 10 lb gain over a 3 month period is not that bad for me, really.  If I wasn’t watching myself - I’d probably gain a helluva lot more!

Anyway - I’ll post up the halloween pictures tomorrow - and start lookin forward to Thanksgiving!