Day 386 - 387: Sister, Mothers & Gas

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and especially their Mothers Day celebrations. My wife & I got away on Saturday to continue the celebration of her birthday and start the Mothers Day festivities. We took off to our backyard play ground, Wisconsin. The Wollersheim Winery was the destination (pictured above). There we picked up a case of wine as we do each trip. We also picked up the gifts for our mothers there, ceramic wine chillers. Of course we couldn't give the moms just wine chillers without a bottle of wine in each.

On the way up there we gassed up in Milwaukee, here is the price of gas (cheap stuff) there...

 Cheapest we've seen around home it in well over a month, so we gassed up there on the way up & back.

We stayed in Pweaukee (a burb of Milwaukee) Saturday night. There we dined at Thunder Bay Grille which has been a favorite of ours for a decade. All of us who are serious about making a better life for ourselves embrace change. Change is good, change is needed if we want to see a better result from our efforts. And a different result from the recent changes in menu and style is what I believe Thunder Bay Grille will see. And not for the better. Seriously, we were disappointed. This rustic northwoods centric restaurant went modern in a bad way. It used to stand apart from its competition, now it reflects at least a dozen other places in the Milwaukee area. Oh well, we had a good decade, best of luck to them.

After dinner we went out to Champps to watch the Nascar race and NBA playoff games while knocking back a couple of beers and just hanging out. Along the way we felt the need to fill in the corners left from our dinner experience. To do that we ordered a hot pretzel from the apps menu. I was expecting a pretzel like you'd get at the ball game, but to my surprise and horror this is what we got...

 Not healthy, not one bit. But it was good I must admit. And so was our time together eating this, drinking Leinenkugel's and Spotted Cow, excellent day with my wife!

Back home on Sunday we took in a soccer game for our sophomore, they lost 0-6; way to go winning one for Mom guys. And then off to meet our Mom's for dinner at Bonefish Grill which never disappoints; lets hope they don't embrace too much change.

Dinner was in Schaumburg, IL which is a Chicago suburb. On the way there I snapped this picture of the typical gas price there...

Ugly ugly ugly that gas marquee is. Way too ugly to just end this post on such a downer note. So let me move to a final bit of positive news to share.

This past Saturday my sister walked the stage at Olivet Nazarene University with her Masters of Arts in Teaching. How cool is that!

Congrats Kim & best of luck in that your search to secure a full time teaching position will be a short one.

OK, that is how I spent my weekend, how did you spend yours?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 361 - Surgery Day: NO Platypus Please

So today is the day, surgery day. Next to the last hurdle I need to bound in determining the gravity of this dance with the beast.

Several family members are convening at the hospital today to lend their support, or check out the doctors/nurses too perhaps. Below is an email I wrote to my sister earlier this week that does well to describe my day ahead; so well that I figured it will do well too as my blog post today...

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Kim,


You asked for the details on Wednesdays festivities. They are as follows...


8:45 a.m. I need to check in at LFH, the entrance in front by the flag pole.

All who decide to come for the fun should enter here, ask the receptionist where to go for the outpatient surgery waiting room. They have free coffee and water there, only the best for all of you.

Somewhere between 8:45 & 10:00 a.m. I will disappear into the bowels of our health care system.

10:00 a.m. is when they will inject my forehead with radioactive super powers, not sure if I will get x-ray vision or the ability to take the form of a platypus; I'm hoping for the former.

12:45 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. is when surgery is reserved.

When they are done with both procedures I'll go to recovery and then somewhere where all in the peanut gallery can come and see how loopy I am. Shortly after that we can leave. They said the post surgery recovery can run between 1 & 2 hours depending on how I respond.

We will not get any results from pathology from my forehead tissue or lymph node for 2-3 days, so anti-climatically we'll leave still waiting and wondering the gravity of it all. Not that I will care as I will surely be starving by this time and any discussion of anything other than food will not be my preference. If someone would bring Franks wings to recovery for me I will be most indebted.
>

If not mistaken I believe that I failed to mention that results of my blood test from last week came back good, all numbers normal. That was a 'whew' moment. Hoping from another whew moment in a few days when the pathology reports come in from todays surgery.

I so do not want platypus powers; Fingers crossed!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 195 - Depend On Me

Continuing on the fashion show here, today I bring you this marvelous blue checkered short with tan'ish trousers. I have no idea if they are tan, or beige or whatever. Sort of like when you buy paint, it looks tan on on the paint chip card but the real name is Grand Bagel Delight - WTH is with that? Why do I have to be tempted with hunger while shopping for paint?! Oops, sorry, I got off topic. So anyhow, there is another new clothes picture for you.

Yesterday after work my wife & I decided to meet at Target to do some grocery & party shopping for the weekend. I arrived a good 30 minutes before she did so I decided to wander the store for a bit and saw a few items that I haven't purchased in years but brought back memories...

Silly Putty, this stiff was in my Christmas stocking every year. And like most stocking stuffers it was played with for 10 minutes at most before joining the rest of the small toys in the bottom of the large toy box. But for those 10 minutes my favorite thing to do with silly putty was rip off small chunks, pat my sister on the head leaving them in her hair...

Baseball cards, I owned thousands of these. I recall they cost about 25-cents for a pack of 12 or 15 cards. My mom wall papered a wall in my bedroom with several hundred, that was cool! This pack is $2.99 for 4 cards, yikes; not cool!...

Allow me to day how much I really do believe in today's word; Dependability. What does this word mean to you? Performing as required, that is what it means to me. Yes, a bit of Marine is coming though in me in that meaning...

When we think of dependability we usually think of it in the context of others we rely on being dependable. How often do we have those same thoughts focused back on ourselves?

Who is the primary person we have to depend on to get healthy? Simple question, right? It is ourselves. Your success is dependent upon your ability to perform as required.

Believing that as I do, is very comforting to me. I am most at ease when I am in control of myself. When my fate is not in my control, not only am I not at ease but I am not at my best.

Please don't get me wrong, we need help, we need others to stand arm-in-arm with in our mission. But if we can't depend first on ourselves then we ought not expect others to make being-healthy happen for us. It just doesn't work that way in personal health & fitness.

Responsibility 199, Gotta Do It!!