Long Week Ahead

While working on next week's schedule, I noticed something interesting, I'm on vacation the first three days of the week.  Stacy and I will be headed to Fall Creek Falls on Saturday morning and staying until Wednesday morning.  I'm planning on camping, fishing and golfing while there, this place is beautiful year long and is a great vacation destination.

Then work informed me to invite some clients to the Titans/Chargers game on Sunday, so I now have box seats for Sunday's noon kickoff and Stacy gets to go too. So we will be driving back from FCF on Sunday morning in time to meet my clients and get to the stadium for the festivities. 

Today, Nichole and West stopped by my office since they were in town from Orlando for a wedding.  So after the ballgame on Sunday we will meet them for an early dinner before they head back to Florida and we get back to camping.

I'll return back to work on Thursday only to be out again on Friday for a golf tournament.  Then of course I will be back into the weekend again.

Hope everyone gets a long week like mine soon.

A Labor Day Walk in the Park-Land Between the Lakes

We started this little adventure by meeting at the south welcome station on The Trace at LBL at 5am.  Then we got into David's car and drove to the north welcome station and stepped off onto the trail about 6am.

About 16 miles in we were all still smiles

Allison wanted me to post this picture of her on facebook for a friend.

David and David checking in with technology while taking a break

Our water supply during a stop on day one, we used tablets to purify the water.  With the heat index right at 100 we needed to stay extra hydrated.

Each of us had a backpack that averaged about 35 pounds and the north portion of this trail was very hilly and trails were mostly rocky sloops that caused us to get a few blisters from our feet sliding back and forth in our hiking shoes.

David says ya can't camp in style without your own personal can of cheese.  Camp was a stony plateau next to a spring.  We used our hiking water pumps to fill our water bottles and bladder the following morning before we headed back out onto the trail.

My feet were toast after the first day, and my broken left toe was screaming!

The northern part of the trail traces the coastline of Kentucky Lake.

We planned on doing 20 miles over three days, but we were way over optimistic in our planning.  We did manage 40 miles over two days and were ready to get back to our homes and families on Saturday night.

I spent Sunday in bed eating 800 Motrin and muscle relaxers like candy.  Was able to get up and move around on Labor Day, but very slowly, my left foot was swollen and the nail beds on 7 toes were bruised.

But you know what?

Spending two days sweating my butt off with 3 of my favorite people was well worth it.  Looking forward to our next outing.



Spring? Right.

For the last week I have been wanting to take the bike to Nashville, cause it's SPRING!  The weather is suppose to be bright, sunny, dry, clear, nice, perfect.  You know SPRING!

Where is Al Gore?

Global warming?  Maybe in hell, or Jamaica mon!

This is what met me this morning when I opened the garage door.

In a strange comparison, all my friends on Spring Break are all posting their beach/cruise photos and those who remained in town, posted photos like me.

Stacy's Mighty Samson

This is Stacy's Mighty Samson, Sammy to us mortal people. 

We said goodbye to Sammy last week, he was just about 100 years old in dog years.

Sammy was a true companion for Stacy, always looking out for her and keeping her company and feeling safe during those years I traveled so much.

Stacy was the first person Sammy would look for each morning and would sniff the bedroom door and would not go out until he made sure she was there.

While on vacations one of the girls would keep Sammy while we were away, and it was always the same each time we came home.  Sammy did nothing but cry all night.

Sammy would have been our 14 year old son if things were just a little different.  When our oldest daughter Nichole moved out 15 years old, Stacy was feeling the loss so she made me a proposition.  Give me another baby or a puppy, she got Sammy, quick.

Sammy loved laying in the yard, in the sun, and watched over his domain.

I buried Sammy between the two new trees in the back yard just in front of the bird feeder and placed a large stone over his grave.

Now it's Stacy's turn to watch over him each morning while sitting in the screen room.

Nice Relaxing Weekend

Friday we got to watch Noah as his daddy and mommy needed a night out.  So David and Mandy got us a Papa Murphy's pizza and we stayed at their house and put Noah to sleep, ate pizza and watched some Gerald Butler movie. 

For the first time in a month, there was nothing on the calendar for Saturday.  We did have plans for dinner at Hananoki thanks to our daughter Lisa, who was rewarding us for babysitting grand babies all month.  I should clarify that this is not babysitting in the sense it's a chore, cause Nana loves all her grand babies and spending time with them is a blessing.  Me, not so sure.  Hunter loves to spit up on me, several times, I've had to change shirts three times in a ten minute period.  Emma is the grand inquisitor, with a million questions that I can never get the right answers to.  She is 5 going on 23. Then there is Noah, no better way to describe him other than saying if you look into a china shop and see it being destroyed.  That's Noah.

Earlier on Saturday, cause the weather was suppose to be nice, we decided to take the bike out to do some errands and grab some lunch.  I want to be a TV weather person simply because they can be wrong and never have to worry about losing their jobs. 

What was suppose to be sunny and warm according to all three networks turned out cold and it started to rain. So it was decided, well Stacy decided that I would drop her off at Walmart and I could continue to ride and finish the errands I had to do.  When I was finished I was told to pick her up and hope it would be warmer or I would have to go home and get a car.  It did warm up and I picked her up and we finished what we needed to do.

After we got home, it was time to go back to the mall on the way to Hananoki for dinner.  This included a trip to Victoria Secrets.  Some of the ladies who were in the store would have no secrets if there wore any of the underthings from Vicky's.

At Hananoki, the meal was good and got the usual show completed with the fire volcano and the intense blast of heat from the grill.  Stacy really enjoyed the heat part.

After dinner it was back to the house, I thought.  David and Mandy decided at the last minute to spend the weekend in Cincinnati so it was off to their place to pick up their dogs so we could dog sit.

Now it was time to go home, nope.

We had to stop at Sonic so Stacy could get a molten lava cake with a chocolate brownie.

Then we went home.

On Sunday morning we attended Grace Community Church and listened to Michael Bayne bring it.  I mean really bring it!

After church, the Wilde beast, aka SUDC, aka Carly had an appointment at the groomer.

 Before

 After

Still ugly, but easier to look at.

Monday morning I found her sleeping in Emma's bed like some kind of princess.

So all in all it was a pretty great, easy weekend.

Babysitting with Noah

Stacy and I got the opportunity to keep an eye on Noah this evening so David and Mandy could have a night out.  Noah was put down for the night and Stacy and I were enjoying a Papa Murphy pizza complements of Noah's parents and watching a Redbox movie.  It was the movie with that Butler dude and he's a soccer player trying to win his ex back. (Yawn). 

Halfway through the movie Noah decides that hangin' with Nana and Pop would be much more cool than sleeping.  So, Nana brings him downstairs and tried to rock him back to sleep.

Love me some Nana and Noah.

Here We Go Again

Since my last brief post, Stacy and I have celebrated a 36th anniversary. We went to Amerigo on West End, to be fair, the service was awesome but Olive Garden food has more flavor.  Oh well.

Going to start, ya I know I've said this before, but I'm gonna start blogging again for three reasons.  Grand babies.  I figure if they are going to hear about their granddad, it needs to be from him, not the rumor mill.  Cause we all know what's in the mill.

I'm also a rabid Chargers fan.

Stay tuned.