Daytime Talk Shows

Jerry Springer.

Those two words tend to provoke a reaction when it's brought up in a conversation, for good or for ill. It used to be funny when a fight would break out every once in a while, and it was good TV. When the show first started, or when I first started watching it, they actually had topics that mattered. Once the producers of the show realized how much money they could make from advertising, and how the ratings shot up when a fight broke out, the die was cast. Now, every show has to do with people having sex with other people, with different contributing factors, i.e. My cousin's father is my father too, and I'm having his baby, or I'm sleeping with my grandpa, or My dog is looking REALLY good right now - show topics like that. It's so fake at this point, I'm surprised that Vince McMahon or Stone Cold isn't the host. The staged fights, the girls "accidentally" tearing off a breakaway shirt to expose a bra, the audience members flashing their parts for Mardi Gras beads, and the general quality of guests. Springer is just such a joke, yet I'm watching it now as I post this. *Sigh*

Vacation Finale

We left Detroit at 8 AM on Saturday morning, according to plan. Rachel and I worked hard to keep to our plan for the whole two weeks. She's such a trooper! Me Love. We toyed with the idea of just going through Detroit center, and let the GPS do it's job to find our way around the closed I-75 - but to be safe, we decided to take the detour. Doing that added at least a half-hour to our trip and ended up ticking me off. I knew I should have just followed my instinct on that one. Oh, well. We had decided to use one day of our trip to go and see the historical sites in Kirtland, Ohio either on the way out or the way back. Ben and Sarah said they might want to join us, so we decided to go on the way back home. It ended up that they weren't able to go, but we did. We got to town about noon, after stopping for lunch. We dropped into the visitor's center, and saw the 20 minute film they put on for everyone. Then Elder and Sister Caviness, from Spokane, Washington took us on a tour of the complex. Apparently, Main Street Kirtland used to go right through where the complex is located now. It used to be just two buildings: the Newell K. Whitney store, and the Whitney home that served as the old visitor's center. You had to run across the street from the visitor center to see the home. Well, the city had been petitioned like 4 times to move the road for safety's sake by the church - and with help from Steve Young, it finally passed on the 5th time (if you want the whole story, I'll email it to you.) So, the road was moved and Kirtland underwent some restoration. They built a sawmill, ashery, schoolhouse, the Johnson Inn, and restored the Whitney store and home to as close to original as possible. Here's a picture of us outside the Whitney Store:

We took leave of the Caviness' so that we could make the 2:30 PM tour of the Kirtland Temple. The Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized LDS church) have been in possession of the building since the late 1800's, and have restored and kept the building in such beautiful shape. There was a $2.00 fee to tour the temple, but we gladly paid it to be able to walk in the Temple where so many sacred things were started. They didn't allow pictures inside the temple, but those of you who know me, shouldn't be surprise that I took some when the tour guide took the rest of the people downstairs to the first floor. I know that I am sneaky, and I'll repent if needs be.








These were the second floor, where the "teaching" part of the temple was located. There were benches and collapsable desks on the pews, so that depending on which side of the temple was being used, the people could turn and face whoever was officiating. I wasn't able to secure the lower level inner court, where much of the manifestation of spirit occured .. the tour guide didn't leave a chance to. You could, however, purchase pictures in their gift shop .. which I suspect is the real reason they wouldn't let you take pictures from inside the building. Oh, well. It's well worth the two dollars.


We left Kirtland, and headed out to Jim/Jess' house again, as they offered to let us stay with them for the night to help break up our trip back home. I am so glad they did, after our day in Ohio, we were beat and the kids were also tired, cranky, etc. We had a small cookout, spent a few hours in their pool, and mostly got the chance to spend another night with our dear friends. We wish there was more time, or we lived closer to them. Thank you Jim and Jess, we appreciate it.

Love to all.

On a side note, our camera died the death of being drenched in a rainstorm after being on the roof of our mini-van since Ohio and part of Pennsylvania after Aaron left it up there. I was shocked it was still there, but the memory card kept our memories intact ... an answer to prayer.

Time Flew, Part 2

In the interest of trying to keep my postings short, and ensuring that people read them, I decided to break up last week into 3 parts.

Thursday - We took a tour of the Renaissance Center, GM headquarters, which in turn gave us a spendid view of Detroit as well as Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Apparently, Windsor is the only point of Canada that's directly south of the United States, according to our tour guide. Speaking of tour guides, this lady was a piece of work. We took the train into the city, and it got there about 3 minutes past the 2 PM tour. The lady said that we could still catch them, since the next tour wasn't until 2:30 - and the kids were already getting antsy. The woman at customer service downstairs was great, she walked us to where the tour was and said that we were joining them. The tour guide was taken back, as there were 3 adults and 7 kids, and she obviously didn't want us in her group. Well, after being told she was going to take us, she welcomed us and we went on our way. Our tour consisted of seeing the Riverwalk, the setup of the building, and the 72nd floor restaurant atop the Marriott Hotel that was the center tower of the 5 tower complex.

The top picture is the view of Joe Louis Arena, where the Red Wings play hockey. I zoomed the camera in, so it doesn't really look like this close from the tower. The bottom picture is of the Caeser's Hotel/Casino in Windsor, Ontario. I know it's cliche to rip on the urban part of cities in the U.S. and I grant you that the cliche about Canada being so clean and organized is also at play in my comments, but here goes: Detroit is so freakin' nasty and dirty, yet Windsor looked so clean and pleasant from the top of the building. Both cities had Casinoes (Casino's?), both cities had apartments, roads, cars and such. Just looked so much nicer across the river. Oh, well.

Friday - Rachel and I assisted Sarah in helping get together the cake for Sabrina's birthday party. Sarah had a plan to make a cake from smaller cupcakes and frosting them in a certain design. It was a great success. With Sarah's help, as well, our gift to her was the hit of the party. We got her a baby stroller, pink teddy bear, and Allison picked out a bubble whistle for her. The stroller didn't leave her side all night, and when we packed up and left in the morning, she was up and already pushing that thing around before breakfast. So, thanks to Ben, Sarah and their family for inviting us into your home for the week. I hope we weren't a burden, and that we can see all you again sooner rather than later.

Love to all.

Time Flew

It seemed that a blog was a good way to keep up our family and friends on the goings on in our household, and it has been. Being with Ben and his family in Michigan was a blast, and also very relaxing. We arrived on Friday evening, Ben rented an auger to dig holes for a privacy fence, and was diligently hammering away at the holes while we were en route. I helped him blast through the last 14 or so holes to make the most of the rental fee of the auger, you should see my poor taste in shoes for that job. My Crocs are dirty, dirty, dirty - and wouldn't have stopped the auger, but it was worth helping out Ben after all he's done for me and my family. Saturday was spent relaxing. We didn't do a darn thing, just sat around watching movies and talking, the kids playing in the sandbox and the adults playing "Ticket to Ride - Europe". It was everything I hoped it could be - vacation is for relaxing, after all. Rachel and I spent a long drive on Friday, and Ben was tired from the auger, so we just called it even and hung out the whole weekend. The only bummer was that Ben doesn't allow the TV on Sunday's, so looking for things to keep my short attention span busy was hard, but I made it. Church on Sunday was also good, the Detroit Temple shares the parking lot with the Stake Center where Ben attends, so that was pretty neat. It was also odd, in a way, since the Stake Center looked way bigger than the Temple did. Rachel and I meant to make it back to see the Temple and take pictures, but we never did. Looks like another trip to Michigan will have to be made. Here's a short summary of our week with them:

Monday - Trip the Detroit Zoo. Coolest part? The Kangaroo exhibit, where you actually walked down a path through the exhibit itself, where the kangaroos roam free and across the path sometimes. We also found out that baby Clay (my nephew) thought I was pretty cool, and loved to hang out with me.


Tuesday - We went to the local mall for storytime at Potty Barn Kids. Allison and Ryleigh both love having books read to them, so story time is such a great thing for them. We got there, and Allison decided to push her way to the front like she always does. You should have seen her weaving around strollers, kids, parents, and store displays. Coolest part? We found Ryleigh her own set of Pirate stuff, since she's obsessed with them since our trip to Teach's Hole in North Carolina. We bought her a plate, glass, napkin for the table and then some gold dubloons, with a lamenated treasure map. I am always trying to get her to do her Pirate voice, because I love it, and we're also going to try and make the Pirate weekend at the PA RenFaire.


Wednesday - We were going to try and make this beach on Lake Erie, where there is a row of fountains for the kids to run in and a huge jungle gym. It was supposed to rain all day, and we were running late getting the kids together. Rachel and I told Sarah not to stress, and if we didn't go there, it wouldn't be the end of the world. We were on vacation, after all, and it's not like we needed to go someplace everyday to make the week feel worth it. So, we spent the afternoon keeping the kids busy outside in the sandbox, while swapping stories. Just fun getting to know Sarah better, for me at least.

More on the rest of the week in the next post. Love to all.

Ahhh .... Vacation, Part 2

Well, everything worked out the way we needed it to when we were at home, so Rachel and I packed up the kids and made our way to Detroit to visit with Ben and his family. We left our house at 7 AM and headed out. We looked at both ways we could have gone, either I-76 or I-80, and from a time perspective it was about a 20 minute difference in favor of I-76. To be fair, it also was going to cost us $16 in tolls to take 76 out. So, it was worth us saving that money to take I-80. It ended up working out, just seemed like a long drive. By the time Rachel and I reached the Ohio border, Punchey the Clown showed up and decided to drive the rest of the way to Ben and Sarah's house. Everything was making us laugh, from the Mennonites who couldn't figure out how to put more than $20 in gas at a time into their mini-van, to the almost 7 foot tall guy riding on a motorcycle that was wayyy tooooo smallll for his tall frame. I seriously wanted to ask Punchey if he was part of the same circus as that guy.

We finally got within a half-hour of their house when traffic started. Whoever is in charge of the roads in Michigan needs to have the crap kicked out of them, like now. I'm asking for a volunteer in this, since the negligence in detour signs came within about 50-feet of landing us in Canada! Yep, I-75 just south of the city was CLOSED - - - completely. HUH???!!!?!?? I've never heard of an entire Highway being closed down completely. Thank goodness we received a GPS for a present, so we just made the last left turn short of the toll booths to Canada, and then let that little thing work it's magic to get us to Ben and Sarah's house. Now, get this - the exit to Ben and Sarah's off I-75 is exit 69. Now, that's funny enough - except that the road that exit 69 drops you off of is Big Beaver Road. I am not making this up. Exit 69 - Big Beaver Road. Rachel and I and Punchey LOST it. I mean headache, tears and everything from the laughter. Well, we turned off the exit and the car in front of us was from Missouri. The Show Me State. Yep, Show Me your Big Beaver on 69 crossed my mind immediately. Funny, funny, funny stuff.

We look forward to spending about a week with Ben and Sarah in Michigan, and getting to know them and their family together much better. Off exit 69 - Big Beaver Road. Bwahahahaha

Love to all.

Unexpected news

Tuesday I had a follow-up appointment at the oral surgeon for the two molars that I had to have extracted. I went to the dentist a few weeks back, with pain in my jaw. After xrays showed that my roots were infected, and a consult with an oral surgeon, it was decided that I would have the teeth yanked. The recovery has taken longer than I wanted, but I'm in pretty good shape right now as I write this. Let's just say it's a good thing that I like ramen soup and jell-o. In any case, the removal of teeth wasn't the reason for this post.

I made it into the little chair to wait for the doctor to see me, and after a short time he popped in. Seeing how this was a follow-up, I knew it was going to be an in-and-out deal. So, the doctor pops in and starts me off with, "Well, the pathology reports came back in, and you'll be happy to note that it was negative." Pathology report? WHAT? I was like, "Um .... pathology report?" He says that while doing the extraction, he found a cyst in the walls of my gum that was most likely the cause of the infection. That makes sense, since I put off going to see anyone in the first place. On a side note, I hate dentists. I hate having things stuck in my mouth, I hate gagging, I hate the sight of the dental tools, I hate the burning smell the drill makes (even when it's not being used on you), I hate the taste of the nasty flouride paste that they put in the little mouth piece, I hate the spotlight they invariably end up shining directly into your eyes, I hate the little things they make you bite down on while doing xrays, and probably most of all: I hate the sound of the drill, which you can hear from the waiting area, and it makes me want to run out to the safety of my car every time. Now, with this being my opinion of dental health, you can imagine how much it took for me to go to an oral surgeon in the first place. I even stayed and had the procedure. This was mainly due to my doctor and his wonderful staff. Except for the wench initial receptionist who gave me such a hard time for not filling out her stupid forms for the millionth time. Jackweed. Well, to get back to my point - there was a "growth" found, that they sent out for a biopsy. The doctor said they told me after my procedure, but I really wasn't in a good way what with the taste of blood fresh in my mouth. Well, my focus was on the report from Quest so I didn't really listen to much to the doctor at this point. He checked me out, and saw that my healing was going well. I then looked at the report again, and saw NEGATIVE on the paper. I was about two seconds from wanting a copy to make sure again that there was no cancerous stuff found.

It shook me up for a few hours. Even though the report was negative, I didn't even think that cancer was even a possibility. Just a wakeup call for me, that's for sure.

Ahhh.......back

Well, as with all good things, this weekend did come to an end. To recap, the girls and I spent the holiday weekend with Jim and his family in Pittsburgh. Well, outside of Pittsburgh, but it's easier to call it Pittsburgh as most people could locate it on a map with little problem. It's kind of like telling people that I live in Philadelphia, even though we live like an hour away from there. In any case, we drove back today. A recap of the weekend:

July 4th - had a cookout of hamburgers and hot dogs. We found that Allie just loves to be bossy, and gets mad when other kids don't do exactly what she wants. We also found that Jim and Jess have a large GeoTracks collection that Ryles became obsessed with. Jim bought a box of fireworks, and we lit off about half of them that night.
July 5th - we decided to visit the outlet mall at Grove City as a group. It's always difficult to try and find something that everyone is going to enjoy, so this just seemed like a safe and easy choice. So, we (RACHEL) decided to go "shopping". Just what men love, going to outlet malls with their wives. Now, shopping is what sets men and women apart. I think a comedian said it best, although I can't remember which one to give the credit to, but I loved the way he put it when he said "Men and women approach shopping differently. Rest assured, when a man goes shopping, he's coming home with something. It doesn't matter if it's an air freshener in the shape of the Taj Mahal, or day old rice crispy treats from the bakery. It's the hunter mentality. We shop, we buy. Women, on the other hand, can go shopping all day and return with nothing. How is this shopping, I ask you? As far as I'm concerned, you just wasted the day looking - let's just stop calling it shopping." In any case, we did actually pick up a few things, so it was shopping. Jim/Jess bought dinner for everyone that night at Smokey Bones (my favorite) restaurant ..... BBQ chicken and broccoli for me. The night was capped by the rest of the fireworks to the delight of the kids, and we all went to sleep early that night.
July 6th - What a great relaxing Sunday. Jim opened his pool, and we took Lindser for her first swimming adventure. Ironically, it was in the same "boat" floating toy that Ryles took her first swim in at Jim/Jess'. We were better prepared this time, as Lindser had an actual swimsuit and not just her onesie over a swim diaper. It was also a ton warmer than the other times we've dipped in their pool, so that was a bonus. We relaxed with a lunch outside, and then for dinner Jim grilled steaks, corn, and chicken for everyone. Just a wonderful, lazy day that you yearn for when life starts reminding you how busy you normally are.
July 7th - We packed up, cleaned up the mess the girls made (0kay, and the mess we made) while Jim worked from home in the morning. We decided to have lunch with them before getting on the road for home. We planned to have lunch at the Quaker Stake and Lube and popped in about noon. Well, when we pulled up - a mini-bus from the local retirement community pulled up and unloaded the bulk of their residents. Jessica was waiting at the hostess stand trying to secure a table. It was pretty busy for a Monday afternoon, but it didn't look packed by any means. Well, lovely hostess walks up and the following exchange occurs:

Jim: Table for 8 - four adults and four kids.
Hostess: (puzzled look) how many?
Jim: There's eight of us.
Hostess: (looks at seating chart, grunts) I don't have anything for you.
Jim: Okay, we're going to Primanti's. (To us, with hostess right there) Sorry, apparently they don't have anything, and she's not going to even quote us a wait time.
Hostess: (confused look) Oh, you want to wait? Hmm..... I think we might have something ...... let me see ....
Me: Screw this, let's just leave blondie to her needlepoint and physics books.

So, we went across the street to Pittsburgh's own Primanti Bros. restaurant. Kinda a neat regional restaurant. They put the coleslaw and fries inside the sandwich, you can catch the food network special on the place or check out their website. After lunch, we left for home. It's always a good time with Jim/Jess and family, and we look at them as our second family.

Happy Fourth of July!!

Well, this morning I sending greetings and salutations from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!  When Jim, Jess and Billy came out for the Christmas holiday last year, we were trying to decide when next to get our families together.  We usually came out to visit for the Memorial Day weekend, but this year I decided that I was going to take the Fourth of July off.  After a quick talk to all parties, we decided it was a go and here we are.  

Work was tough to slog through yesterday, seeing how I knew that I was on vacation once the day was up.  I decided early on to start my day at a store that was farther away, and then work back methodically until it was at least 4 PM before I could go home.  Well, I accomplished this goal a little too well.  We didn't end up leaving our house until like 5:30 PM after dropping off movies at Hollywood video, getting gas, and then playing the stop and go game of traffic south of Reading, PA.  Things were good on the trip, except for the construction hold-ups on the turnpike until we decided to stop in Breezewood for dinner, bathroom/diaper breaks, and to stretch our feet.  McDonald's is a parents best friend at times, as most kids will eat the chicken nuggets without complaining.  It can also be a demon, as that's all that the kids will eat, even though the parents might actually want to go somewhere else for dinner, but don't want to hear the bitching once the "Golden Arches" come into view.  Anyhow, that's where I decided to stop and eat.  Big mistake - - and it was all McDonald's fault.  The drive-through lane was packed, and we needed the bathrooms anyway, so we parked and went inside.  I stood in a long, long line while Rachel took the two oldest to the bathroom.  Once Rachel was done with that, I took Lindsay to change the diaper and so I could use the facilities as well.  That was done, and I popped Lindsay into the high chair, sat Allie and Ryleigh down into the booth, while I fed Lindsay some baby food.  Rachel finally was able to order the food, and then we left.  Well, guess what took us so freakin' long at McDonalds?  THERE WAS ONLY ONE REGISTER OPEN FOR EVERYONE!!!  Yep, some pimply-faced kid was taking everyone's order, and then there were a few people in the back filling them at a snail's pace.  So, between the drive-through and the counter business, there were two registers open.  On the day before a major U.S. holiday.  Morons.  I know that everyone on the six o'clock news claims that travel is down from past years due to gas prices, but for the love, there are still going to be people traveling.  

We got back on the road, and then were treated to the cat and mouse game being played out by the crazy truckers zooming in and out of traffic in the rain.  Rachel and I were both getting nervous about passing these guys, and couldn't wait until the rain stopped, or we got to Cranberry (our destination).  Just seemed like there were a lot of impatient drivers last night, wanting to get home at all costs, and things were in the way.  In any case, we're here at Jim and Jess' home, and it feels like a second home to us.  I love these guys and can't wait for the next few days.

More later - but I will say this:  Happy Independence Day to everyone!