Another Quick Weekend

Well, another quick weekend. I went to be early Friday night as I had to get up at 3:30 am. to pick-up Angelfood Ministries food. Uncle Chef was a bit lat and we didn't leave the Goat's house til 5 am (we are usually there by then) We pulled in to St. Marks and there was no truck. Through the magic of blogging two hours pass... the semi finally pulls in at 7 am. It take us an hour and a half to unload the truck and divide up the food and we are at church at 8:30. There are already people in line to pick-up their food. Crap. After we get the distribution line set up it is about 9 am and we start distributing. We finish with distribution and eat lunch and I get home about 12:30. Fart around the house for a while and then take a nap til about 5 pm. Watch some Olympics and then back to bed at about 1 am.
Sunday Juju and I did some painting at the new house. We got the living room painted a light Tan/Beige. Aunt Alyice took Cooter to the Zoo so we could paint our little butts off. So far, I think the kitchen and living room colors are awesome. I have a sore neck and arm as I did all the cutting-in and Juju was the roller queen.
The new neighbors were moving in next door and a went over and gave them a wassup. They seem very nice and their son is only a few months older than Cooter.

i was a Dark Knight, Angelfood, waterboy!

That's right I was an Dark Knight, Angelfood, waterboy this weekend.
Things started off on Friday night. Juju and I went to see the Dark Knight. It was pretty good. As everyone knows by now, Heath Ledger stole the show. The Joker was effing crazy. The movie ran about a half hour too long, but other than that, a solid performance by all and a decent story line.
The Goat watched Cooter at our house and I went to bed as soon as i got home as i had to get up at 4:00 am to pick up food for my church at 5:00 am across town. Unfortunately, the runway light went out at the airport.... Why do you say unfortunately.... because i own a police scanner and it was really good listening. Planes circling the airport at different altitudes as they are trying to figure out what is wrong. Helicopters coming in and air traffic controllers making sure everyone can see everyone else. I mean, really there were only 3 planes and a helicopter, but it was still interesting to listening to the ATC coordinate it all. Finally, there was one never-used runway lit and the ATC told the planes they could “land at their own risk”...not very reassuring at the airport was covering their booties if anything should go wrong. Just as the first plane was landing all the lights came back on. Crap! Interesting airport night over and nighty night time about 11:30.
Woke up Saturday morning and met my Bro-in-law JT at the catering business to pick up the box truck and head across town. Got there a little after 5 am, got the truck situated and it was time to unload the semi and divide up the food. It was a crazy month as the first thing off the semi were big boxes of produce. We had sold 30 boxes and we had filled a pallet of food just with the first item. We had to do a lot of re-stacking in our truck as the food coming off the semi was all wonky. Got to church and kept the food in the truck until the last minute as it was pretty cool inside with all the frozen foods piled up.
Got all the food distributed, had lunch and went home. Cooter and i were bushed and he fell asleep in the car. I brought him inside and then had to jump Juju's car as the battery had died the day before. She took it to Monroe to get a new battery. She has a Passat and the battery is in a crazy place... right below the wipers in the middle of the car. There are plates and stuff you have to remove to even get to the darn thing. Whatever happen to the old days when you didn't have to take it to the mechanic to change a battery. Anyway, Cooter woke up about 10 minutes after Juju left and wanted to watch and dance to his Pooh video. Crap. No sleep for me. Juju got home late in the afternoon and i got a few ours before supper. After everyone was well rested we went to Sissy & Turnbuckles house to visit as Juju's aunt and uncle were in town from VA for Juju's father's uncle's funeral. It was a nice visit, but they decided to make smores in the chiminea. Not a good place to be with a 1 ½ year old. No matter how many times you tell him hot, he always runs right for the crappin' thing. After everyone taking turns occupying him we went home and straight to bed.

Sunday morning i got up at 6:00 am as i was volunteering to be a waterboy at our city's annual runner's club half marathon. I met Hatches and her brother, his wife their two kids, another of Hatches nieces and two people from Big Brothers, Big Sisters. After a bit of confusion about where we were to be, we set-up our water cups and doled out water to all these crazy people that think running is fun! After the race we got meal tickets to eat at a picnic at our local amusement park Waldameer. The race ended early as most people didn't do too much walking. The last runner quit at the BB&BS second water table and a gave him a ride back to the finish line. His name was Jimmy and he was from Pittsburgh. We chatted for a few miles and i extolled the virtues of my hometown. Met Hatches, the girls and their mom at wallyworld at about 10:30. Walked around the unopened park. (the waterpark opens at 11 am and the Rides at 1 pm) We ate the picnic lunch, which wasn't bad, a bit bland. Burgers, dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, ice cream, cake and my favorite, beer. I left for home right after eating as we were supposed to go to a graduation party. We bagged it in order to nap and then went to Juju's aunt and uncles for a picnic and swimming for supper. Overall. A pretty busy and rewarding weekend. Well, better get to bed, gotta work in the morning. I haven't been sleeping very well and i am not sure why.

P.S. I took some pick of the house the other day. I will try to post them tomorrow.

IT'S OFFICIAL

It's Official.... Cooter is ours. The Adoption Hearing was Thursday and everything went fine. We didn't even have to sign anything. Crazy. The night before we saw the family court judge at an event Juju and I attended. We introduced ourselves and told her we would see her the next day. Thursday night was the Crohns and Colitis walk. We had already committed to do the food for it before we knew about the meeting. So we invited all of our family and friends down to it to celebrate. The walk turned out to be a great event and so was Cooter's celebration.
Friday we went to Sissy, Turnbuckle and JJ's house for a party. Mostly for Turnbuckle's co-workers, but we know a few of them, so it was cool. Early to bed for me as it was Angelfood. (this week was the correct one) I thought it was last Saturday and showed up at 5 am at the food drop with the box truck to find no one was there. Crap! I went back home and back to sleep, but still getting up at 4am two Saturdays in a row is really crappy. Angelfood went fine. My parents came back from vacation on Saturday night (we were expecting them Sunday) so Cooter got to see his Uppa (grandpa) a day early. I swear, every time we go somewhere the kid just starts saying Uppa? Uppa? Uppa? You would think my parent spoil him or something (they do).
Sunday, Juju and the Goat went to the casino in the morning. They had “secret vouchers”, “up to $10,00.00”....they each won $5.00 in casino bucks... suckers. That didn't even pay for the gas to get there. Took my parents over to the new house. The deck in the back is freakin' awesome. They are supposed to start drywalling today....we will see. In the afternoon we went to Juju's aunt and uncle's house for a picnic. Juju's cousin Lexi is in town from Memphis for the week. We swam and ate and ate and drank....too much (ate too much that is). We were there a few hours and Cooter was crazy running around, so we had to go home. (it is a lot of work to keep him away from the in ground pool). Got home and watched an “Inspector Lewis Mystery” on PBS. Those British sure know how to write a mystery. I watched a “Miss Marple Mystery” earlier in the week... never saw the ending coming...

"white trash thursday"

Yesterday, after work we went to the house and i have the coolest deck in the back of the house i have ever seen. The insulation has been started on the inside so i really need to get all the hvac and missing cable and phone lines taken care of. I don't have the camera or i would post the pics i took. After the house we went to Valerio's where cooter had the chicken and fries anf juju and i split a chicken ranch calzone.... wow it was awesome. Neither of us could finish our half! After that we went to visit my brother Bear and his wife Candy and 2 year old g-money. They have another baby due next month. We are calling the baby Luc Luc as that is what g-money calls Uniqua of the backyardigans. The kids played in the kiddie pool in the front yard as we sat in white plastic chairs with or beers... so white trash. Lol we got cooter home about 8:30 and he was in bed by 9. he was putting up quite a fight, but was to sleep in all of 5 minutes. When we went to wake him up this morning he had a blanket on him.
It is the first time he has ever covered himself up with a blanket. It was cute.
Tomorrow it is angelfood ministries so to bed early and up at 4 am to pick-up food to distribute. I have a busy schedule on saturday. Julie has a family flea market in the church parking lot til 1 pm while i am in the church doing angelfood. then off to my work wife's housewarming party at 2 pm. A few hours there then off to a couple graduation parties.

sunday chill

it is a bit chilly today. we went to the mother & child luncheon at church (i helped serve the ladies). we took juju's grandma "buscha". my mom, aunt AJ and Rusty were all in attendance. we came home and took a nap and kept going on the housework. it seems lately i can't keep up with the laundry. i will have to try and do more loads per week. as cooter's clothes get bigger the bigger percentage he takes. it didn't help that we had no pampers, (his night-time brand) and he peed the bed every night. Pampers are the shizzzizle.
the house is boarded up as all the contractor's stuff is in the house as he had to empty his trailer to move his brother this weekend. CRAP! i stopped on Friday night and saw they had begun rebuilding the sun porch. i am very excited about it, it is gonna be sweet.

poker on Thursday played out like this.
13 guys + 1 re buy = 140 bucks.
1st place - 80 bucks - "4 time john"
2nd place - 40 bucks - "hanging chad"
3rd place - 20 bucks - "Rambo Phil"
after next week we are going to have to change the day to Wednesday, i am contemplating having the game only once a month through the summer as i have tons of stuff to going on and really can't "host" the game. (or at least shouldn't)
Friday was to bed early as angelfood ministries was sat morning. got up at 3:30 am and my dad picked me up. went to the goat's and got the truck. we has 140 some "units" and 60 some "specials". we have not had that many orders in quite awhile. the truck was pretty full. we picked up a bunch of orders from a church who no longer does the program. i came home and got a call from my friend "D.C. Steve" in from...guess where. we had the grand opening of a new roller coaster in our town and Steve and his girlfriend were one of the high bidders for the "inaugural run" the proceeds went to juvenile diabetes. you can take a "virtual ride" here http://www.waldameer.com/RavineFlyer2.html

it was great to see him and meet his old lady. i met them at his parent's house with cooter. the little one was abnormally bad. he wanted to run, but i couldn't let him as steve's parent's house on in no way "baby proof". there is breakable stuff everywhere. i watched pics of their trip to Italy between chasing cooter. i wish i could have hung out and chatted over a few beers, but was only there about an hour as cooter was CRAZY! if you are reading this steve, i apologize for cutting it short. i would have met up with you later if i wasn't up at 3:30 am and Juju was feeling better. we came home took a nap and got up about 7 pm. watched the backyardigans for the 1000th time and then went to bed about 11.

Update, Update, Update.

Wow, it's been a few days since i posted and i have a lot to write. i may break this up into a few posts so it isn't so long... here we go.

Thursday's poker results.

12 players + 1 re buy = 13 buy-ins x 500 chips = 6500 chips

1st place - Hanging Chad - 80

2nd place - Hatches - 30

3rd place - River Farbo - 20

Hatches strikes again. another second. She was way out-chipped 1500 to 5000. i whispered in her ear to play strong, she had nothing to loose....she did. She went all-in every other hand and got Chad to fold a bunch of times. She doubled up once and just as she was getting some steam behind her, chad went all-in she called and lost. CRAP! I stayed around 500 all night, got a pocket pair of 10's and lost to a AJ when a J hit the river. they don't call him "River Farbo" for nuthin'. It was a coin toss as to who would win, but i still got rivered.

Friday was an early night for me. I do Angelfood Ministries for my church once a month. Here is how it works. You pay for groceries ahead of time for $30 and in the middle of the month, you come to our church and pick it up. It is usually around $70 worth of food. Since it is a ministry and not a government program there are no "qualifying". if you eat and have $30 you "qualify". I go to bed early on Friday night, Up at 4 am on sat morning and drive over to the Goat's to get the box truck. Meet my bother-in-law and drive to another city (not far away) to meet a semi-truck full of food. there are usually 6 to 7 churches that split the food. We load up the box truck with 3 others from church and drive back to our church to distribute the food. We usually arrive at our church between 7 and 7:30 with another crew to offload the food into our gym to distribute. we distribute between 9 and 11 and then have lunch. Juju and Cooter came down and we left for home around 12:30. juju dropped us off and ran some errands. I wasn't feeling tired but fell asleep on the couch after i put cooter down for a nap.

at 6 pm we went to meet a friend of ours who adopted a baby from China. It is a sad story with a happy ending...kinda. Our friend Lori went to China last month to meet her baby she is adopting. to make a very long story short, a few days after getting her little girl "Kat", the poor little thing came down with meningitis and had some brain swelling. she lost her sight and hearing and her muscles stiffened-up. Since her adoption was only for a healthy baby and not a "special needs" baby, she had to "un-adopt her". My some miracle they found another adoptable baby "Mei Mei" and after a 1 1/2 month stay in china that was supposed to be 2 weeks. she and her new baby Mei Mei came home. Lori is making sure the Kat is going to and Institution where she will be taken care of. She met some really nice people in china that are making sure it will happen.

there were tons of people at the airport to welcome her. she was one of the last people to get off the plane. we were all so excited we were welcoming everyone off the plane. i heard someone say they thought there was a serviceman on the plane because of all the people at the gate, but got confused when they saw the "it's a girl" sign. lol. they just had a puzzled look on their face and shrugged their shoulders. Here are a few picks.

Here is cooter meeting Mei Mei for the first time. they are about the same age 1 1/2 years. the size difference is crazy.