Well, not actually with him but in the same restaurant. Susan’s company was having a promo thing at Outback and it was an “invitation only” affair. He was the guest of honor. They had all you could eat steak, ribs and chicken, plus Caesar salad and a blooming onion. No booze though….damn. I went for the free meat only since I could care less about Nascar. Could have had a chance to meet him and get an autograph but didn’t do it.

Susan got mad at me this morning when I informed her that I had filled out and planned on mailing an application to be on the ABC show “Wife Swap“. I think we would have a good chance of being candidates due to the circumstances of our marriage. She doesn’t think it would be a good idea. The premise of the show, in a nut shell, is two women swap places for two weeks. They move into the other’s home and interact with the other husband and kids. During the first week the swapped wife has to live by the rules of the wife she is replacing, doing everything the absent wife has to do around the house. Then the second week she gets to change the rules to how she would want it to be. The two families are different in many ways. Last night one was a millionaire Manhattan family and the other was middle class New Jersey. The Jersey wife had her own wood cutting business that the rich woman had to take over for the first week. I told Susan she might get lucky and get to live with some mega rich family. She said she would most likely get stuck on some pig farm in South Georgia. I was sure to add that the wife who moved in here would have it made during the first week seeing as Susan doesn’t do much around here except sleep! She didn’t think that was funny. I was joking anyway…..right?

In my slightly drunken state last night, after having filled out the application, I went ahead and put it in the mailbox. After our exchange this morning I took it out before the mail lady came. I am undecided about sending it. What do ya’ll think? I know the chances of getting picked are slim to none, but still it’s kind of exciting to think about. Heck, Chuck could be a TV star!! I wonder if it’s true that the camera adds 15 pounds….

The ex, F.A., is M.I.A. Haven’t heard from her since Tuesday. It is unusual if she doesn’t call at least twice a day. Usually it is more like 4 or 5 times. I called her yesterday twice and left two messages on her cell phone. She didn’t return either and hasn’t called today. I know I should be concerned since she has attempted suicide twice in the past six months, but I just can’t get up the desire to try and call her again. I know she has to be out of her house by today. With no where to move she will have to go live in a women’s shelter. Most likely she is tied up with moving, but still, it’s weird to not hear from her at least once. Maybe she is laid up with some guy and is falling in love at this very moment. That would be great. It would be nice to have her out of my hair and off my payroll (alimony). She needs to become some other man’s problem.

Everyone going to be watching the debates tonight? We sure will! I am looking forward to all three of them. I think they will be very revealing and should help continue to increase the spread between the two. Also, what is the deal with Jimmy Carter? As one of the worst Presidents of the twentieth century, do people really care what the old man has to say? Jimmy it is time to just chill out in Plains, go back to teaching Sunday School or go hang out some more with your buddy down in Cuba.

Well that’s it for now. Got to go pick up my daughter from the carnival at her school. The school managed to wrestle another $15 out of me for this little affair. Hope she is having fun.

Later ya’ll……

I have worked more in the past three days than I have in the past two weeks! Yes, I know that’s sad, but I have got a lot of good stuff done so far this week.

The Food Show turned out okay. Those of you who commented on my last post about how nice working those shows sounds, should realize that it isn’t all food, food, food. It mostly involves standing for 8 to 10 hours waiting for a customer to come to your booth. When you have a booth at a food show, and your products aren’t food, your not one of the more popular booths in the place! But….without my product (to-go type containers) there wouldn’t be the ever popular carry out or doggie bags, now would there? So I try to encourage more visitors by having tons of candy, but that usually only attracts the children of the customers! Anyway, it was a good show, I ate way too much, but made a few good contacts. Yesterday I got my wife and her friend Susie G. into the show. They walked around the place and ate like pigs! Last night my boss and I went out for drinks and steaks. Today we made a few customer calls and I took him to the airport by 2.

I had been hearing about this Gmail thing now for a month or so and the other day The Good Wife had a post where she was wondering what was so special about it. I too had been wondering, and thanks to R.D. Turpin and his invitation I now have a Gmail address (chuck116@gmail.com). I read some of RD’s blog and it seems he and I are sort of neighbors, he is in Atlanta. I only hope he doesn’t regret wasting an invite on me once my UT VOLS come to Athens and kick some UGA butt! Thanks RD!

I feel so out of things “blog wise”. I haven’t had the chance to read all the many blogs I read daily since I have been out of the office for the past three days. Tomorrow, once I catch up on administrative work, I will have to put on my “blog whore” hat and go back and read all your posts that I have missed this week! I won’t get the chance to catch up tonight….I have to watch Wife Swap. Have you all seen this new show? It’s better than the one on Fox, I think. Then tomorrow night I will be watching the debates. Looking forward to seeing how many more points Dubbya can gain in the polls. It should be very interesting to watch.

Okay, that’s all for now….have to make something for these kids to eat. Later ya’ll…..

Haven’t been home too long tonight, maybe about 30 minutes tops. Had a chance to check out my comments and respond to them and notice that I have had 335 hits on my site since Friday. I really appreciate all of you who check me out daily. I just hope I can write something that will make you want to keep coming back. Unfortunately tonight won’t be one of those posts.

I left the house this morning at 6am and took the boy to preschool. After I settled him in to school I headed downtown to the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center (BJCC) for a food show for one of my major customers. I had set up a booth, nicely decorated with my products featured as well as some candy (people love free candy). Susan helped me make everything look as good as it could look since I am a man and I (obviously) don’t know how to decorate. I spent the whole day standing there, greeting customers, taking orders, and eating as much free food as I could eat.

If you have never been to a food show, you don’t know what you’re missing. Imagine walking into an arena type setting and laid out before you there are over 300 booths with everything from chicken strips, chicken wings, grilled chicken, cheese sticks, pasta (every kind you could imagine), seafood; lobster, catfish, scallops, shrimp (fired, grilled, etc.), oysters, prime rib, steak, fillet, hamburgers, ham, bacon, sausage, turkey, chicken, every type of potato ( chips, fires, waffles, seasoned/plain, baked and mashed). Then there is the soups…all types. Next you come to the breads….every kind you could imagine, from bisquits to seasoned bread sticks. You walk a little further and you get to the fruits and vegetables….I am sure you can imagine all that is availble in this area, there is even dips you can try for your fruits or veggies. After this you find the dessert section. OMG, there is everything under the sun. I won’t even try to elaborate here…just imagine the cakes and pies and ice creams….But, don’t forget the coffee and tea and water booths….you won’t have to worry about being thirsty.

This is what I have been dealing with all day today, as well as tomorrow. Needless to say I am not hungry in the least. Having one of the few booths without food, you can imagine that I am not as popular as most of the others…It makes for a Looooong Day!!

After I left the show this afternoon I took T.J. (he flew in to help me) back to the airport and headed down to the Irish Deli to meet Susan and Susie G. for a couple drinks. We had a good time, then I followed Susan back towards home, but I stopped off to wash my car. My boss is coming in tomorrow to help me for the second day of the show so I wanted my company car to look as clean as possible. When I got home I parked it in the garage and vacuumed it out real well and sprayed some Frabreeze to get rid of any nasty smells.

Now it is 10pm and I am ready for bed. It will probably be Wednesday night before I can post again, so feel free to comment. I will find the time to read them and respond.

Later ya’ll….

forgive the mispellings….spellcheck isn’t working tonight and I am too tired to try and check back over everything!

GO VOLS!! How about a nice little win last night! 3 and 0….Unfortunately the game wasn’t televised, it was against Louisiana Tech after all, but my sister was watching it on pay-per-view in Knoxville. She called ever so often to fill me in while we were out to dinner.

The VOLS might have started out a bit slow, but a 42-17 win is nice, even if it isn’t a conference game. This is their second win this season with the same score (1st game against UNLV). Next Saturday will be the second big conference game for the VOLS….after beating Florida last week, Auburn will be the next to fall.

Today my beautiful wife turns 34.

All last week I have been planning on a surprise birthday gathering at The Tavern On The Summit. I called her best friend Susie G., her previous boss Steve, her sister who lives in Georgia, and a good buddy of hers from back home in Tennessee. Susie G. had also contacted a couple other of Susan’s friends from work for me. Well unfortunately all but Susie G. were unable to show up…but she was still surprised and we had a nice time. It was fun, the three of us, drinking and eating way too much. My lovely wife was very pleased, telling me that she wasn’t upset that no one else had showed since her two favorite people were there! We left the restaurant, thanked Susie G, told her goodbye and went to Wal*Mart to buy supplies for her BD dinner for later today.

When we got home she told me that she wanted to reward me for being such a thoughtful husband. I got to lay back in the bed while she spent sometime giving an oral thank you…(damn woman, watch the teeth!). After a few minutes I had her turn around and I entered her from behind. We weren’t three minutes into it and she was coming. I let her finish her orgasm then pulled out and laid back down. I just wasn’t too into it anymore. Maybe I had had one too many Black & Tans at the Tavern. I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like finishing the deed. I did get to get off during a “quickie” that morning so it wasn’t like I had gone the day without getting to B.D.N.

For her birthday dinner later today Susan is wanting turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, greenbean casserole and deviled eggs. Sounds like Thanksgiving, huh? Well my Mom had called earlier in the week and told us how she had made a turkey breast for dinner one night and we got to thinking how good that sounded, so…..that’s what we’re having for dinner tonight. I am actually looking forward to it. I had bought a 6 lb. Butterball breast earlier in the week and it is thawing nicely in the fridge as I type this. Buddy Jim has given me his recipe for dressing, so I will be sure to let you all know how it all turns out. Oh, I almost forgot….Susan made a flowerless chocolate cake for desert. Damn it’s good. If you haven’t had one before you need to try it. I would be happy to send the recipe link if you’d like it, just don’t feel like looking it up now. Just let me know…

I will try to post something later today, but that will probably be it till late Wednesday or Thursday. I have a food show to attend on Monday and Tuesday and will be working with my boss on Wednesday, so my personal computer time will be at a minimum.

Happy Birthday Baby, I love you!!

The orange tonight is in honor of my wife, a Tennessee grad…

I am not sure if you have noticed or not but yesterday, about 22 hours ago, I added a counter to my site. As of right now I have had 113 visits to my boring little corner of cyber space. If you deduct the 7 times I checked out my site today that still leaves 106 visits in less than 24 hours. Wow, I am feeling good. I had no idea there were that many people checking on, or reading, my site.

I also went ahead and added the “referring pages” info and the “number of readers on-line” info. As I type this there are four people reading….I know I am one of them, but still….wow!

So, here is the deal…I want to invite all of you to spiff up your blog with these features. Many of you may have already done so, but for those who haven’t, scroll down to the very bottom of this page. You will see a large banner for Bravenet. Click on that and sign up (it’s free) then you can add all these exciting features, and more, to your own site. If you are a blogger novice like me, I would be happy to help you out. Just let me know….

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

There hasn’t been much going on with me lately, but I thought I might as well post something anyway.

The past two days have pretty much been made up of working and watching Star Wars DVD’s. Last night Susan and I were without the kids, and we ordered pizza and watched the Dr. Phil Prime Time Special.

In the past couple days I have noticed that several blogs I read have mentioned the new Star Wars DVD release and these bloggers have talked about what an influence SW has been in their lives. I thought I would do the same here….hey, I know, most of you could care less about SW…but like I said, there hasn’t been much else going on lately.

I didn’t see the movie when it first came out. I think it was probably late summer/early fall before I first saw it. My parents and I were living in an Eastern North Carolina town in late 1977. This town, Elizabeth City, only had one theater. It was a two screen place near the mall. I have a vague memory of my Mother telling me I was going to go see a movie on Saturday. “It’s a space movie with monsters in it.” I think she said. She dropped me off at the theater, you could do that with kids in those days and in that town, and a nine year old Chuck settled in for the show. I didn’t really know what I was to expect, but I remember vividly the 20th Century Fox logo, the drums and trumpets, then the “A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away….” message on the screen. (Pause) Then the music and the name, “STAR WARS” popped up on the screen. I sat there spell bound during the whole thing. I don’t really remember any particular thought I had other than knowing that this was unlike anything thing else I had experienced in my young life.

Over the next few weeks I would be dropped off at the theater, pay for the first showing and sit though it two or three times. I am sure my parents enjoyed this time alone on Saturdays, and now, looking back, I wonder why it took them four more years before my sister was conceived!

Another SW memory was the first time I got some of the action figures. It must have been soon after I had first seen it. We went to “Roses” a department store in the little mall we had in the town. I was only allowed to buy two of them, so I picked R2D2 and C3PO. A week or so later I had enough money saved and I bought Han Solo and Princess Leia. I remember getting in the car, showing my dad what I had bought, and him saying…”Why did you buy a doll? Didn’t they have any other “boy” action figures?” I assured him that the Leia action figure wasn’t like a Barbie, and it would be needed to complete the set. Over the next few years I collected them all, plus the ships and other play sets. With the release of the other movies I got more and more of the toys. I still have them now. I have been saving them for my kids.

Another SW memory….My Dad taking me to see The Empire Strikes Back. About half way through the movie he turns to me and tells me he is going out to the lobby to have a cigarette. He assures me that he would watch through the window in the door so he wouldn’t miss anything, (like he really cared!). He gets up, takes three steps up the aisle and falls flat on his face. His leg had gone to sleep while sitting there and it didn’t want to do what his brain was telling it. OMG, how embarrassing….he got up, told me he was okay, and I slumped down in my seat hoping no one would connect the two of us together!

My cousins (Jimmy’s 2 older sisters) and I would have some good SW times when our families would get together. Anna, the oldest of the two, had all the large size action figures. You know, the 12″ ones. I was always Han and Luke and she was Leia. We used the Barbie RV as the Millennium Falcon and we had some great adventures. Since Anna was Leia, we had to create a character for her younger sister, Kristen, to be. We took a Barbie doll, with overly frizzy hair, and named her Barbie Hairball….another female Rebel hero from some planet where having neat hair isn’t mandatory!

I have always been more attracted to the fantasy element of SW, than the science fiction. I consider Lucas on par with two other of my favorite writers, Tolkien and Robert Jordan. If you like fantasy and you have never read Jordan, you need to do it.

These are just a few of my Star Wars memories. I won’t bore you with anymore. Mr. Lucas’ fantasy series has played a major role in my life. I look forward to getting my boy into it too.

P.S. Please don’t be thinking I am some greasy haired SciFi geek, I am not. Just a guy here, like millions of others, who loves Star Wars.

Yeah, I guess I never told ya’ll I am a Star Wars geek….

Worked hard this morning till around 10:30, then showered and got ready since I had a dentist appointment at 11:00. All checked out well, then I went and picked up Buddy Jim at his house. Haven’t seen him in a few weeks. He wanted to take me to one of the older restaurants in Birmingham so I could experience some good downhome cooking. We went to Lloyds Restaurant, in business since 1937, and had a feast. With his suggestion we ordered something not on the menu. It’s called the “Sheriff Special” and was a huge plate filled with hamburger steak covered in onions and gravy, sliced BBQ, french fries, and onion rings. There was also salad (nothing fancy, just lettuce and three kinds of dressing) and bread. Came home and worked hard again till now. The lunch was very good and five hours later I am still full!!

After lunch we went over to Wal*Mart and I bought the new SW DVDs. I won’t bore you with tales of how much Star Wars has meant to me in my life, but let me just say this….At the risk of sounding a bit geeky, I consider myself to be a SW expert. Go ahead and ask me any questions….I bet I will know the answers.

Now, back to the weekend. Even now I am a little sore in my legs, arms and back. I know what you’re thinking, but it is not from wild freaky sex. It is from working my ass off in the yard. Although there was some wild and freaky sex, what would a weekend be without that? But I won’t bore you with those details.

Anyway, Susan got it in her mind that we needed to get rid of the shrubs along the side of the house leading up to the front door. She dug up one of them on Friday afternoon while I was busy in the back yard, with a chain saw, getting rid of one of our Cyprus trees that had a bit of a fight with Ivan. On Saturday we took a trip to Lowes and bought three Encore Azaleas bushes. They are unique because they bloom five times a year. We spent the rest of the day digging up the old shrubs and planting the new ones. After they were planted I added some top soil and mulch. It all looks good, but damn…all that shovelling has left me a little worse for wear. It sucks getting older. I will be 36 in late November and I feel like I am 60!

Not me, nope, never again. I resolve from this day forward to have the boy’s birthday party at a place where someone else does all the work. I don’t care how much it may cost, I will never open my home to a shit load of 4-6 year old kids, and their parents, again. It was ever so stressfull for Susan and I.

First I have to give you a little back ground story. As you may have read, we live on a cul-de-sac, or the Sac, as I like to call it. On the Sac there are exactly eight boys all under the age of six. Two of these boys are bothers and their parents, D & L, and I haven’t gotten along for about a year and a half now. It all started with the ex wife and a comment she made to the wife, L, right before she moved out of the house. Knowing that I was going to continue living here with the kids she resolved to ruin my rep with the Sac neighbors by going to the biggest mouth on the Sac and spreading a viscous lie about me. She told the neighbor lady, L, that I had always wanted to have a foursome with she and her husband and me and the ex. By foursome I am not referring to golf, okay? Well L told her husband D and D came over to have a few “words” with me. He acknowledged that they figured my ex, FA, was crazy and doubted what she had said was true, but he felt like my family and his shouldn’t talk until this all blew over. I told him I understood, and confirmed that what she had said was crazy and a lie, and agreed to let it blow over. Well fast forward a year and a half later…..we still hadn’t talked. Not only had we not spoken, but we never even waved to each other as we drove in and out of the Sac. Well during all this time I learned, from the more normal neighbors of the Sac, that both D and L and their kids were a little off and couldn’t be trusted. Seems the oldest kid (6 years old) had threatened and or hurt some of the other kids on the street and it seems that D had gotten into it with Chris, two door to my right, and threatened to “kick his ass” just because Chris had accidentally trimmed the grass along the sidewalk on D’s property. This was just one occasion of many for the other neighbors in their relations with D&L over the years. Since yesterday I have heard quite a few tales about the crazy shit that D&L have done ’round the Sac.

Well, so you can imagine my surprise when a week ago their oldest kid comes to the door one afternoon and informs me that my son, L, had invited him to the birthday party. Damn, L…can’t you keep your mouth shut!! LOL So of course, when the invitations were made out and delivered, by my daughter, I had to include D&L’s two brat kids. So, yesterday they all show up, the whole family. They proceed to come into my house, plop down on my couch and let their kids run wild around upstairs. It was so weird having these two sitting in my house. I had not been within 30 yards of them in well over a year and to be honest I couldn’t even remember what they looked like close up. It got me instantly stressed, because I never figured the whole family would show up. I just thought they would send the brat 6 year old across the street and the rest would stay home. Well, soon after the rest of the parents and kids showed up. Within minutes I had a house full of screaming little boys, and their parents. D&L’s brat kids were going around pushing or hitting the other kids and they did nothing to stop it. Their youngest kid dropped his cake three (3) times (3 different pieces) and the wife, L, kept asking me to give him another piece. Damn woman, make him eat the dropped cake…haven’t you ever heard of the 3 second rule? I was literally sweating through my shirt from all the stress….serving hotdogs, chips, dip, cake and ice cream….then sitting through the present opening episode was just too much. Hell I didn’t even get to take any decent pictures thanks to all the work I had to do. My son will never have another 4th birthday and, even though I was there, I missed most of it due to the stress.

The party began at 4:05 pm yesterday and was over at 4:55 pm. I rushed the hell out of this event. That fifty minutes included play time, hotdog eating, the cake/candles/BD song, and the present opening. I was ready for it to be over. I wanted a cigarette and a drink right away! Luckily my son didn’t notice the stress the old man was under and had the time of his life. He got some awesome presents, had a great time and can proudly proclaim now that he is (holding up 4 fingers) four years old.

Next year it will be at Chuckie Cheese or this place. The place on the link is awesome…took the kids to one of the other Sac kid’s BD party there on Saturday (D&L’s kids weren’t invited) and that is the joint to have a kid’s party.

Oh, BTW, I downloaded the Haloscan comment thing and I have lost all the previous comments to all my old posts. I hate that, as I used to like to go back and read what you all had to say over and over again. Oh well, guess I will have to look forward to all the new comments in the future. Hopefully I can find it in me to post something worth a comment.

Edit: I will post tomorrow about all the other excitement from the past weekend. Let’s just say, for now, that I am a bit sore today…

I am VERY happy tonight! Why you ask? Well check out this link. Aside from the birth of a child or my (second) wedding day….this night has been one of the best. I will post more later….this is all for now….off to celebrate a little more. I sense a record setting inebriation happening tonight!