Coming up for air.

Wow - I have not been keeping up with my blog!

Quick update:

Interior of the home is almost complete
Garage: 50% complete
Landscaping: 10% complete


St. Patty's Day: We were in the parade. I was over-served by the bartender. But a good, safe time was had by all.


This weekend: Off roading in Georgia.


New gadgets: New phone (w/ camera!), HD plasma screen for the garage. heh, heh, heh.

Marching Forward

The house: Coming along nicely . . . . as are the invoices. Ugh.

The Deuce: Eric and I moved it to the ranch which will be its new home for a few months. Eric found and RTI ramp while we were exploring the property.



The Dixie: Beautiful as ever.

The Future: St. Pats Parade and two weeks, River Rock Jeeping in 3!

For Sale

710 hours, nearly flawless condition, factory service performed at 700 hours.


$25,000 - includes bucket.

Call (813) 971-1040

Speak the speech

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue." - Excerpted from Hamlet



So I was reading the paper this morning, and I happened upon the following bit of text: "At 3, he fell in love with words when his grandmother read him a book about kittens and puppies and he heard the words rapscallion and cantankerous.

'Those two words stuck in my ear like a roach at night,' he says. 'They began my love affair with words."


Stuck in my ear like a roach at night?! What kind of a simile is that?!

Of course . . . . for those of you who followed the links above you now know that these elegantly links words were uttered by none other than Tampa's own Poet Laureate.

In case you are wondering what the hell a poet laureate is, CLICK HERE.

Heh - just kidding . . . . CLICK HERE

Yes indeed . . . we have much to be proud of here in Tampa . . . . . Mons Venus, the I275/I4 interchange, the Glazers, my neighbor who thinks he is Peter Pan, and now Mr. Tokley.

Win some . . . . lose some, I guess.

In the house

The house is FINALLY starting to come together.

Happy St. Valentine's Day to all!

Update

House = Disaster area . . . not b/c of the recent tornados, but decause of the constant procession of remodeling workers.

Saturday = Gasparilla Night Parade, look for us in the Krewe of Seville (dressed as pirates) Float #36. After the parade we can be found at Gaspar's Grotto on 7th Ave.

M35A2 = Just got back from a little road trip to the landfill.

This evening = moving furiture.

Tonight = Cocktails with old school chums from the M.B.A. program at the 42nd Street Bistro (which is located, oddly enough, on Howard Avenue.)

Hillsborough River

I was a little slow of the shutter on this one . . . but check out the osprey (with lunch) on the left!



On a fun side note - I was at a press conference at the Life Enrichment Center yesterday. While I was there I gave the director one of my photo calendars, and she showed one of the reporters for the Tampa Trib. She now wants to feature some of my work in the Tribune's community section! Neat-o!

Monster sized fun

Here are the pics from the tailgating extravaganza!

Chef eMoist at the grill - which of course was strapped into the back of the M35A2. There is certian resemblance to Chef Paul Prudome, don't cha think?



Dan and Kathy brought a huge side item spread!



A Lokey dude taps the keg! I wish we had brough bar stools - the deuce tailgate is perfect bar-height!



A very alert Muriel . . . . with a bonus Dixie Butt sighting!



The girls were feeling no pain!



Sharon and the Man! (Jeff? Joe? Joel? Sorry I forgot!)



The crew!



Howie!



Herr Bindschattle



Kathy mid-story



Kristian's little one

The siege is imminent

Pictures from last night:

Happy Birthday, eMost!

HBD!

These other events happened on your date of birth, and may provide some celebration suggestions or other guidance on this, a most auspicious day. I realize that the connection might be somewhat cloaked, or obscure, even. So to move towards clarity, I have taken the liberty of suggesting the kernels of knowledge and guidance in bold.


Jan. 22
1905 - Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution. (Cause a commotion - history teaches us that everything turns out OK in the end!)

1952 - The first commercial jet plane, the BOAC's Comet, is put into service. (Have a [jet] blast. Eh! Get it? Have a blast? **** ** never mind. Next!)

1968 - The TV sketch comedy Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuts on NBC. (If someone offers you a drink, just reply, "SOCKITTOME!")

2002 - Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in American history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (As it turns out your friends were right and your mom was wrong. People that wear clothes from K Mart are dorks. The Law of Economics supports this. Therefore - if your friends tell you that you should go ahead and have that 14th shot of JagerMeister, go ahead - clearly they know best.)

2003 - Last successful contact with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects. (Sometimes losing touch with reality is a good thing. It means you are able to reach out and explore the unknown. Either that or aliens have abducted you to make you a lawn ornament.)

Details

I am getting down to the finer details on the M35A2.

This week saw the completion of the seat rebuild. I had a friend weld the original "Observer Seat" (passenger) in place, and I re bolstered and recovered both seats!

On the plus side

The occupation situation, as all do, has it's ups and downs-perhaps mine are somewhat more uncommon because of who I work for . . . . .

This afternoon will be one of the "ups." I am being paid to go boating.

I'll snap some pictures of the lovely Hillsborough River and share.

Good Times

It started out as a couple of friends gathering at Hooters one afternoon. But there was a table of really, really loud females in flannel in close proximity - so we moved the party to my patio.


The usual suspects:

Floyd the BBQ King



eMost - the pirate king


Gecko and the Jen.


Dougnuts



So we all piled into the deuce (the ultimate grocery getter) and headed to Publix to get grilling supplies.


We also had a couple of drinks - which prompted a game of Catch Phrase. (And that is Big Perm on the left)

Some of us had more than a couple of drinks.




Yeah, many more than a couple of drinks.



At any rate we are going to do it all over again - probably this Friday - call me if you want to come!

YES!!!

I really, really hope this effort gets off the ground!

Happy New Year!

Birthday

If you are joining in the dinner portion of the Dixie and TJ birthday party, the venue has moved to the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse on North Dale Mabry. It seems Arigato's caught fire. Candles on my cake are not to blame.

If you are coming to the main event, the plan remains the same. 9:00, 12/29, Green Parrot Pub.

Can you belive that people say I am hard to shop for? Here is a picture of this mornings desk:

Quick joke

Here is a quick theology joke . . . . . mainly for Eric.

There was little boy who was raised in a conservative religious home that believed in predestination. One day the boy fell over a pair of skates he had left at the top of the stairs. After falling head over heels to the bottom of the stairs, he dusted himself off and said "Boy, I'm glad that's over with."

Bwaaaa ha ha ha

Leaving on a jet plane

Leaving on a jet plane - an Airbus A-330 to be precise. We start boarding in just a few minutes if all goes well. I just spoke to my sister and she said that the weather is beautiful, and in the mid 50's - but that is going to change suddenly and drastically.

I was planning on going shopping for my nephews when I got there - but my sister just suggested putting some dollar bills in an envelope . . . . . . can do!! That means that I only visited one store to shop this year (although I did need to make a couple of trips due to "inventory issues")

Happy holidays to all!

Not Good!

Do you know what this is?


That's correct. It is the downfall of human civilization as we know it. They have redesigned bubble wrap. If you look carefully you can see that each bubble has a small channel that connects it to the contiguous bubbles. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?! Well, I will tell you what it means: one can't pop them! The other bubbles rally together in communistic fashion and share the increase of pressure. And should you succeed in popping one of the bubbles by using, say in a fit of desperate rage,with a paperclip, all of the other bubbles in that row deflate in a solidarity protest.

I say again: NOT GOOD!

Whoohoo

My attorney just gave me a $100 gift card to Dunkin' Donuts, and a client did the same with a $25 card that's two whole months of muffin and ice coffee goodness!