Cooter's Artwork

It seems Cooter got a hold of a pencil and wrote on a half dozen walls and doors before I caught him. I cleaned it all up, but Juju found a door I missed. The front door. Crap. At least he is a lefty. Maybe he will be an artist like daddy. As a bonus he colored inside the panels. I took a picture of him posing with his "artwork". Perhaps his but is against the door so I don't SMACK it. Click the photo for a closer look. His cuteness factor is so off-the-chart that I can't be mad at him for very long.

A Mighty Long Time

Hi everyone. It seems like forever since I have posted any personal stuff. Here is an update for the month of November. My workplace put everyone on a 3-day work week. It is kinda sucky, but I am getting things done around the two houses. My dad and I have been emptying out the old house and I have been unpacking boxes here at the new one. I stopped my 401K and changed my deductions on my paycheck to 7 dependants (totally legitimately) so no taxes are taken out of my pay. My dad and I have all the rooms painted in the new house.(almost) The half bath needs a few more coats as it is a deep red. I have 2 coats on it already and it will probably need 2 more. Crap! Thanksgiving was a HUGE success. We hosted my family for the Thanksgiving meal at 1 pm and Juju's family came over at 7 pm for deserts. Our oven was not working at the time. A shut-off was broken when it was installed. So Juju cooked at the catering business. The oven was fixed today along with the internets starting up. I have had it hooked-up for 3 days now. This morning i got up and looked at the modem and the internets light was on. I thought I had installed the phone line incorrectly, but I guess it was a verizon problem. It is a happy day in the Boki Mame household. I have an oven and the internets. Yippee, Juju has been jonesing to bake cookies and I have been jonesing it visit my... frugality blogs (you thought I was gonna type porn sites, didn't ya). Cooter should be getting up from his nap soon and I am gonna get a wink or 2 in beore starts opening his eyes. Working wed, thurs, fri next week and mon, tues, wed the next. Then another 6 day weekend. I could really get used to this... lol.

Our First Cootastrophy

One week in the new house...one week and our first Cootastrophy.
I get home from work and Juju yells, "is that you honey"?
Yea.
"You need to go in the basement and turn off the water to the 1/2 bath toilet...quickly".
As I turn the corner into the hall, I see a 1/4" of water on the hardwood laminate. I open the bathroom door and see my wife on the floor, soaking wet, sitting in a pool of water, trying to shove the toilet supply shut-off back into the PEX pipe. I sprint to the basement and find the shutoff to the toilet. The unpainted drywall walls are soaked, and in the basement there is a 6 ft x 6 ft wet spot under the bathroom. That is a lot of water...cold water that Juju was laying in trying fix the pipe.
I seems as she was going to the bathroom, Cooter came in, bent down next to the toilet, and just pulled the shut-off right out of the PEX line. It was like a geyser shooting from the floor! Trying to stop the water while laying on the cold and wet floor for 20 minutes was all she could do until I got home. I am afraid that our laminate tile floor in the 1/2 bath and wood laminate floor in the hall are going to be ruined. After living there for a whole week. CRAP!
Then I was trying to get our clothes dryer gas line hooked-up and I needed a pipe reducer. Went to Lowes and, of course, got the wrong one. CRAP, CRAP!
Then decided to put together our new little corner desk for our computer and had to take it apart as many times as i put it together because of putting things together backwards or upside down. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP.
It was not a good one week anniversary.
Saturday morning, Juju and I are judging a high school academic competition taking place at a local college. Aunt Alyice is gonna watch Coots in the AM and then at dinner time we are going to Coots first real birthday party at a local sports park.
He was crazy bad on thursday. They celebrated a couple kids birthdays at daycare. All the balloons and cake and decorations got him all revved-up and he was crazy hyper all day.

In Like Flint

We moved into the new house yesterday. By no means is ALL our stuff moved, but enough to spend the night and come to work today. The Goat is selling her box truck today so we just got the big stuff, our clothes and kitchen utensils. That box truck was sure a great luxury to have for the past couple of years. I am sad to see it go, but the goat doesn't use it as much as she thought she would for the catering business, so it makes sense to sell it to someone who can use it.
I don't think we will move anything else in the cars tonight. Just put clothes in the dressers and organize the hanging clothes, decide which drawer the kitchen stuff will go into etc. My back and knees are in bad shape, but nothing 2000 mg of ibuprofen won't fix.
Cooter and the Foo adjusted much better than I anticipated. Coots is enjoying speeding around the open floor plan and fell asleep very quickly. We decided to put his crib next to the light switch as that was the layout in the old house and he enjoys having control of the switch. I think it made the move a little less traumatic that there was a common thread in both bedrooms. As for the Foo, he seemed unfazed. He ate some food as soon as he got there (after sniffing around each room) and was not jumpy at all. Juju brought over his fleece blanket that he likes to sleep on and he chilled on that most of the night until he decided he was hungry and tried to wake me up at 5 am. by the way, when he did wake me I noticed Cooter's light was on. He must have woke up and flipped the light on and went back to sleep in the middle of the night.
I sure was weird waking up in a new bedroom (especially when the new bedroom is 3 times bigger than the old one). It is a master suite with it's own bathroom and walk-in closet. I felt like i was in a hotel room. The bed is in the middle of the room with our dressers and "dressing area to the left and computer and "sitting area" to the right. The only thing that will take some getting used to is with all the laminate and tile floors all the sounds carry. I had the police scanner on last night on my night stand (as i do every night) and it seemed I couldn't get it to a good volume. I kept turning it down and down, but it was still waking me up every time i heard a call. CRAP!

T-Minus 3 Days

Well, the day is set. We are moving on Wednesday. I have been painting like a madman with Moose and Uppa all weekend. It is taking a lot longer than i anticipated. With fresh drywall and just weak layer of primer (put on by the contractor)the paint is just getting sucked into the drywall on the first coat. Loading the roller every 2 feet really slows the process. We got the bedrooms painted with 2 coats. Our bedroom is a Lemongrass green/yellow and Cooter's is a Light Blue/Grey color. With the Cherry laminate floor and White trim both rooms look amazing. Monday night we will put a second coat on the laundry room (it is a Dark Blue/Grey)and maybe the stairs (a Mocha color) if there is time. Tuesday night i will start packing up clothes and Wednesday we will move. The Goat is selling the box truck on Thursday, so we have no choice.
Here is a pic of Cooter on Halloween. He was "Row Row" the dragon. He really didn't "get it". He was more interested in the lights and decorations.


Is that the cutest thing you have ever seen or what?

Paint, Paint, Paint

Today Uppa, the Moose and I painted the bedrooms of the new house. I didn't get as far as I had hoped. I have to remember that this is the first coat ever on these walls and it is time consuming and suck up a bunch of paint. Our bedroom too 2 gallons and I had to run to the pait store and get a second gallon for Cooter's room. I got there just before the store closed and my cousin's wife hooked me up with the family discount. Tomorrow back to the painting. A second coat in Cooter's room and the laundry room and 1 1/2 baths. at least the big rooms are done. We will move in during the week sometime. It is supposed to be sunny and warm for the whole week. Maybe I will finally catch a break.

A Long Time Coming

I haven't posted much personal stuff lately, but today I have some good news. We got the permit to move into our new house. I am full of excitement, fear and loathing. Excited we are moving into a practically new house. (at one point during the demolition there was a floor and four outside walls...that's it... LINK (about halfway down the page) Fear I won't sell the old house for what i want or in a timely fashion and loathing because the second floor is unfinished and will be left up to me. We bought the house in foreclosure and got it at such a great deal we put on an addition and second floor. It was the neighborhood we wanted and now it is the house we have always wanted too... a win, win.
We had a bit of a scare and failed our occupancy permit last week because the inspector said the second floor had to be finished. Seeing that we are out of money and won't have any until we sell the first house, it got a bit hairy. My contractor smoothed everything out with the home inspector today and we got the permit.
I have the downstairs bedrooms, baths and laundry to paint, but it is ready for occupancy. When all done it will have 5 total bedrooms including a master suite on the first and second floor. 3 1/2 bathrooms, a first floor laundry and a great room / kitchen area that is bigger than the entire house we are living in now. We are now in a 700 sq. foot bungalow and moving to a 2500 sq. foot 2 story. The new house is 3 1/2 times bigger than the old one. You might think to yourself "Boki, why do you need a house that big for just three people". If you thought that, you have never met my wife or seen all the stuff she has. I will need every inch....

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.

Poker. Poker, Poker

I have 2 weeks of poker to catch up on so here it goes.
August 13. Not sure of the payouts, (as i left early) but here is how they finished
4th Place - Captain Dave
3rd Place - Salvador Dolly
2nd Place - River Farbo
1st Place - Texty Steve

August 20th game went down like this.
15 players + 1 rebuy = 160 pot
3rd Place - Turnbuckle -20
2nd Place - Captain Dave - 50
1st Place - Kitsy - 90
I had a huge lead when the tables combined and honestly I really don't know what happened. I probably had 5 times what the next closest player in chips had and I won a huge pot the hand before we combined tables. The blinds were only like 15/30 then. everyone limps with 30. Flop comes. I flopped a K high flush and had 2 betters in front of me. Texty checks, Chad bets 60, I bet 160, Texty Steve goes all-in for 400. Chad calls and I go all in with like 1000 more. Chad folds and my Flush wins and i am 1510 chips richer. My cards really dried up after that and I lost a few big hands. I had decided not to bully and just play premium hands and let everyone else knock each other out. It didn't work out that way. I seemed before we combined i was winning with top pair and a good kicker, but I was chasing people out of pots. Once we were down to one table, I would hit top pair and someone would hit a straight or flush and slow roll me. Crap. I did a pretty good job of isolating players when i did have a decent hand. As I have said before I like to divide and conquer. I will enter a pot with nine players, but if I hit the flop I'm gonna bet enough to only get one or two callers (preferably none). Mostly I think I lost focus Captain Dave was to my left and Kitsy was to his left. Kitsy talks and talks and talks. I listen to his stories and forget where I am in the betting and toss my blind and and it gets raised. I fold without seeing the flop and the blinds get up there. You are talking 200 to call the big. I did catch Dave changing gears and told him i noticed it. He said he was flattered and i told him he shouldn't be... those aren't things other players are supposed to notice. lol.
We had some new faces this week and some old faces came back. Mark, his wife Sandy and a kid named Sal were the new people. Mark's first time was a few weeks ago. I guess he liked it enough to bring the old lady. That's cool. Kitsy brought Sal. He wasn't that good, and that was awesome because he was sitting to my right. He went out first just after the first bell. He went all-in and I called him with AA. Sorry about that Sal. Coach and "4-time John" were regulars I hadn't seen in a while. John was the only person at my table and Coach and Sandy were out before the tables combined, so I didn't get to talk to of them. John and I were in a lot of hands together so I didn't get to yap with him either. Mark sat to my right at the final table. He seems like a nice guy, but I really didn't get to talk to him as Kitsy monopolized the conversations.
Hatches and Heather were there also. I think 3 women playing is a record for our game. I hope the guys don't mind them playing. My feeling is that their money is just as green as the boys, so bring'em on. lol.
A little drama with the house today. nothing too catastrophic, I was going to blog about it, but it is 11:50 and I better get to bed.

A Painted Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend. The weather was crappy, but I got a ton of stuff done at the new house. Friday we stopped over to the house before it got dark. As we were leaving a truck stopped in front of our house. I was our contractor's parents and grandmother driving around looking at his projects. Of course we invited them in. They are very nice people and very proud of their son. He does do nice work, but i was supposed to move in on Memorial Day!!!!!!

On Saturday I needed to paint, as the kitchen cabinets are supposed to go in Monday and Juju wanted to get it done before that all happens. Of course, she had to work her high school annual golf outing fund raiser all day. I called Uppa and Gamma and they came through. Uppa helped me paint while Gamma watched Cooter at the house. We painted the whole ceiling of the great room and primed the walls then went home for lunch. After about an hour went back to the house and put the first coat of color on the kitchen walls. The color is called New Penny and it looks awesome. Today I went back in the morning and put a second coat on the kitchen walls all by myself as Juju had to work for the Goat and took Cooter with her. This afternoon was my sister-in-law Candy's brother's diaper party. It was nice, Cooter got to play with his cousin G-Money and a couple other kids and I got to eat and drink beer. Man, it was a crappy day today. It rained all day... and not sprinkles... raining buckets.... I wouldn't be surprised if there is some flooding today. And it is crazy tonight, Juju has a nasty cold and is in bed, the cat is getting high on catnip under the table and the kid is crying and bouncing in his crib and not going to sleep. I am guessing he was given lots of sugar at the party. Crap. Keep your fingers crossed the cabinets go in tomorrow.

Poker and the new house

here is how poker went down. I am not sure of the payout as i left early. There were 12 players and , i think, 3 rebuys.
3rd - Captain Dave
2nd - Hanging Chad
1st - The Mullet
Hatches came in fourth on the bubble, but she took out 2 players on the first hand of the night. She had JJ, Oz had KK and Captain Dave had A9 suited. One J came on the flop and no help the rest of the way and Hatches had 1500 chips just like that. Oz and Dave quickly re-bought in.
I made it to the final table and picked the Ace to deal first. there were 2 limpers and I had K 10. I was deciding to go all in as i didn't think the 2 limpers were a threat and the big and small blinds were the only plaers left to act. as i was thinking, River Farbo (small blind to my left) says raise. I stopped him before he said an amount and told him I hadn't acted yet. I got a bit miffed that he bet out of turn and with my whooping 340 I went all in. River is famous for raising in the small blind to try to steal pots..... He calls with 55 and the limpers fold. A queen and nine came on the flop, but i caught nothing else and was out. I was probably a good a chance as any to go all-in, although I had 7 more hands until i was a blind. I was kinda pissed about the whole thing and decided to just go home.
Today I had to cut foam in the afternoon to get some signs going. It is stinking HOT in the shop. not that it is any hotter than outside. It is just hot everywhere.
My folks watched Cooter today. He was a bit crabby all day. I am not sure why. We are going to try to get him to bed earlier. I only watched Winnie the Pooh once today. FANTASTIC !!
Juju was supposed to go to Penn State to teach a class at a library conference, but has a nasty kidney infection that was diagnosed on Tuesday at the hospital. She is doing fine, but is on pain pills and antibiotics. Juju picked up Cooter, but when I called after work she hadn't left my folks house yet. since it on the way home i stopped. We thought the grout was going to go in today so we all drove to the new house (no grout) and then to dinner at the Pittsburgh Inn. It is close to the new house and is a good meal at a good price. Uppa and Gamma paid, yippee! The watched Cooter all day for free and paid for dinner. It doesn't get any better than that. lol. Thanks Uppa and Gama. P.S. Cooter picks up the phone and says, "hi Alyice" now as well as, "hi uppa". Dang he is cute!

The week in review

Monday -
Juju's uncle's funeral and wake. Juju worked the wake for her mom while i was at work and cooter was at daycare. She brought home a butt load of leftovers. Sweet!

Tuesday -
Juju and I were invited to a champagne reception for a Kiosk I designed at the Maritime Museum. It is a cool concept. The kiosk is for the "Erie Hall of Fame". Residents of Erie who have contributed to the betterment of world as we know it. Instead of having a building they are going to put kiosks around the city in high traffic public places. The kiosk is interactive with a touch screen and video monitor and a lot of cool stuff inside you don't really care to know about.
After the ceremony we went to dinner at "Joe Roots" with my boss and his wife and the owner of "Howards". it was nice. Talked some about work and some about pleasure. I have never talked to Bill's wife in a non-work capacity, so it was cool to see how she ticks.... i like her.

Wednesday-
Sunday School picnic at Waldameer. It poured rain in buckets and I missed Poker... crap! Hatches did tell me about a crazy hand thought. Hatches was dealing. she accidentally flipped up a K to Hanging Chad and he decided to keep it. Most everyone was in the hand. the flop is KKJ. everyone moans and checks to Chad...He goes all in....everyone folds...except the guy to his right, "River Farbo" who calls. River flips a KJ...he flopped the boat and Chad was done for the night...crazy.

Thursday-
A day to rest. I'll take this lull of a day to write about work. I has been really busy the last few weeks. there was a slow down for about a month and a half, but things seem to be picking up. we have a whole new workforce in the shop that start tomorrow. I had to fill in on the foam cutter Thursday and Friday to try to make a delivery on Monday. I don't mind filling in on the shop floor every once in a while, but snap, my legs and feet hurt from lifting them over the "bars" all day. (that is me in the very beginning of the video drawing the sign, the bars are in the next clip, you gotta walk in and out of the machine to load and unload foam).

Friday-
We celebrated our sister-in-law Dena's birthday at the imperial Chinese Buffet. I was o.k.. the food that is. there was a ton of people there, but not a ton of selection of food. there was only one food station for regular food. one Mongolian food station and a small station with deserts. My Tops Buffet has four regular food stations a Mongolian and a desert. The Imperial did have a soft serve ice cream machine. They get a point for that. Our appliances also came from the GE Store and the tile flooring was started. the living room wood laminate floor is in. It is starting to look like a house.

Saturday-
Juju and I went to the movies to see the X-Files with "Danielle" and "Dave". Danielle is a very old friend of mine and i used to hang out at her family's house and watch the X-Files every week with them. We met at 6:30 and ate at "Oscars". The last few times i have been to Oscars it has been packed and the service has been horrible. Yesterday was the exact opposite. Juju and I got there a bit early to wait for a table about 6:10 and the place was empty. there were like 3 tables with people at them. We had a great dinner, great service and great conversation.... and no crowd to talk over. awesome. It was great seeing both Danielle and Dave and catching up. Danielle and I are her sister's daughter's godparents and since getting Cooter I don't see them at all. I gotta get better at that. I don't really see anyone. We get in our little family cocoon and shut out the world. It seems we have lots to do but no time to visit with the people we care about.
The X-Files was..... awesome. I was NOTHING i expected, but everything i loved about the series. We really had a great time D&D. We need to get together more often.
Spoiler Alert: There was no alien or monster or inbred personage. Just a good story about some missing women and Mulder and Scully come out of "retirement/hiding" to prove or disprove that a psychic knows some details of the crime and they get sucked into the case. I was almost weird that nothing really weird happened. It could have been a Sherlock Holmes or a who-done-it. Don't get me wrong, there are a few twists and turns that drop your jaw and make you scratch your head, but for the most part it was just a hour and a half long episode. Juju said at the end of the movie, "it makes me wish the series was still on the air". I couldn't have said it better myself. Well done Chris Carter.

Sunday-
Juju volunteered on the penninsula this Sunday for "Discover Presque Isle" in the morning. Cooter and I played and watched Pooh Bear sing-a-long for about 1000 times. he loves to dance to all the songs... it is very cute. In the afternoon Cooter and I went for a walk and played in the yard to let mommy take a nap. we watched Pooh Sing-A-Long for about 1000 times in the evening and put Cooter to bed about 8:30. It' s about 10:30 now and i am heading to bed. L8R

Poker and Infusion Wednesday

Poker was tonight and this is how it played out.
10 players. No re-buys = $100
2^nd place – Lex - $20
1^st place – Me $80
It was an odd night for my play. Usually i am pretty steady hovering around 500 chips. Then at some point i will make a move and either bust or get the chip lead. This happens usually about halfway through the field. I don't think it is a conscious thing. It's just that when half the players are out you should have double what you started with to stay above water...and usually i don't. So whether i get a few decent hands and “push a bit” or try to bluff a pot or two, i make my stand and let the chips fall where they may. Tonight a hit a butt-load of straights. I must have won 7 hands with straights. Mostly with two face cards. I definitely got better cards later in the night, but when i got the lead i bought quite a few pots with nothing. I lost a huge pot, about 2000 chips, to Oz when he got runner-runner heart to get the flush. (we both flopped 2 pair, i can't remember the community pair) he went all in with pocket 6's and one heart... i had 10's....and no hearts...crap. Honest me, no one saw the flush and as Oz was leaving the table i said “hey, you won with a flush”. At least i can say it was an honest win. that hand crippled me, but i got 2 great hands after that got a triple-up and double-up and was back in the hunt. I think i had about 200. the triple-up gave me 600 and the double-up gave me 1200. I just kept winning hands after that.
I don't like playing the first hand of the tournament and toss almost anything as the chances of winning the first AND last hand of a tournament are slim. I tell the person who wins the first pot of the night, "you win the first one and i'll win the last...."
Juju got her infusion of Remicade today and is feeling and moving much better. The goat picked up Cooter around 4:30 at day-care as the infusion takes three hours and started at two. Got to the goats after work and juju showed up soon afterward with New York Lunch (greek burgers and fries and gyros). As we missed the local Greekfest this year due to our Juju's arthritis acting up, she got a substitute. It was tasty!

Turnbuckle had to go over to the new house and fix some ductwork that the inspector didn't like. TB said he has done tons of new construction jobs and never had to seal every joint like the inspector wanted. they had to cut some walls and ceiling drywall away where the ductwork ran, but hopefully everything is fine now and we can proceed. not much new to say about the house. the progress is pretty stagnant lately, other than drywall and mudding and a new lawn nothing much has changed. I realize i haven't posted any pics lately, so i will soon.

Poker and a Cooter

Well, tonight was a crappy night for cards, but a good night for laughs. There were only 7 people who showed and one was a newbie. Here is how it played out.

1^st tournament
2^nd – Captain Dave - 10$
1^st - Dead Money – 60$

2^nd tournament
2^nd – Lex – 10$
1^st – Captain Dave – 60$

I was out of both tournaments first. I just couldn't get anything to play. And in the few instances i did, the flop was low and someone would bet it up. (like they had a pocket pair) Crap! In the 2^nd tournament i flopped a K high straight and went all in. The way i was going i was not trapping anyone. Well, Turnbuckle called me with a A 10 and the K hit on the river to give him the A high straight. A 3 outer........That is how my night went. At least we had quite a few laughs with 6 regulars. The conversation was excellent and i don't remember laughing that much in a long time.

Tomorrow I have to take Cooter to my folks house. Cooter's daycare lady is on vacation this week and Juju has had him from sun-up to sun-down. i haven't really been home at night. Monday we met with our insurance guy at the house and Cooter ran around like a wild man. Tuesday night was investment club (Juju stayed home and i represented the family) and tonight was poker (she watched JJ and Cooter while Sissy was out and Turnbuckle played cards). She deserves a break from crazy coot.

A few words about investment club....it is really hard to buy stocks when the market is nose-diving every day. We bought 50 shares of CVS last month and have already lost 3 bucks a share. It would have been better to leave it in cash. At least we would have the same amount and not $150 in the hole. Crap. But that is why it is called investment club and not money club. Lol.

Tomorrow night we need to order tile for the kitchen. Most of the drywall is up (except the bathrooms and laundry) and being mudded. I am forced to have the perimeter of the upstairs drywalled per the inspector. More money. Crap. But the house is shaping up and i can't wait to get it finished.

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.

i suck, here is a new post

Again, I haven't blogged in awhile. I suck. We moved poker to Wednesdays. Beginning a few weeks ago. I haven't been doing all that well, but last night i chopped first place with Cutter. Here is the lowdown. 12 players x 10 + 2 re buys x 10 = 140
3rd – Heather – 20
1st – Chop Me and Cutter – 60 each
I sucked out quite a bit. So i can't say i really did anything different. I really am not concentrating lately. I can usually figure out the reasons and the hands i misplayed to lose, but lately i am a chatterbox and am not paying the least bit of attention to my position or who i am in the hand against. I guess it is turning a bit more to the social side than poker side and that is ok, but damn it i want to play to get better. In addition the new poker night has thrown my weekly schedule off. I usually do laundry on wednesday and it seem thursday is always busy. So it accumulates til the weekend. Juju is on summer break and hopefully can pick up my slack.
Not a lot on the house front. It seems all they have done in the past month is put up the siding and roof. On a positive note the outside is buttoned up. The house inspector is making me put the deck on the back now. (i was going to do it myself after we moved in). I paid the extra money for the contractor to do it....so it gets done. Insulation is supposed to happen this week, but i haven't seen any yet. Then insulation inspection and then drywall. We are having a bit of trouble with the kitchen. Lowes gave us a layout and price. We shopped it around and are having trouble getting people to call us back. We got a cheaper price from a local kitchen place, but after our second meeting they haven't shown up to the house to take measurements.WTF
Well, a week from today Cooter will be officially ours. his adoption hearing is next Thursday. I took the day off. We are working the food at the annual Crohns and Colitus walk thurs. night so we will have a cake to celebrate.

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.

house pics before and after

before and after....so far

Here are the pics from tuesday. wed was tarpaper upstairs wall sheathing and more plumbing.

I added some original pics to this set so you can see the massive change. it is hard to believe.

One Floor Down, One to Go

the second floor is on. here are the pics.
this is lil' AJ. it was his first visit to our new house.
today was the anniversay of the death of juju's dad. it's been eight years.

I met her in the summer of 2000 just after her dad died. i never met him, but everyone tells me we would have got along. we all had dinner at the goat's house. juju's sis and 2 bros families and of course Buscha. hey, i just noticed juju fixed the date stamp. horray.

juju's bro went to his baby's (pooker) termination hearing this week. since the mom and dad are AWOL. he had to go and let the judge know his and his wife's intensions to adopt Pooker. he said it was all of 2 minutes. we will probably have to do the same thing as cooters parents are gone too.

turnbuckle came over to the new house to get a feel for the HVAC runs. it looks like it will be pretty easy. i was kind worried as there is a big LVL (beam) down the middle of the house that will block any possible runs from one side to another. i think we figured it out. so all is good.