Busiest weekend ever…built a deck, a dog run and changed my electrical panel. Didn’t get to bed until 11pm on Sat. and about 1am Sun.

I’ll post “real” pics later

To Do:
EVERYTHING!!
Does it ever end? I am FN tired

Photo By: Ed Roberts

SaturdaySaturday reviews

Personally I was in favor of the closure but for selfish and lazy motives. I mean let’s face it If I have the option to sit at home or be at work in the freezing ass cold I choose sit at home, hands down. And, as if that wasn’t awesome enough, I get paid my regular wage!

It all began yesterday. The news anchors were freaking out about a gnarly storm that was going to bring 1/2″ of ice accumulation and up to 12 inches of snow. Basically the world was going to end by 6am on Thursday and continue through to Saturday morning. Everyone (myself included) was a bit nervous about the impending doom that was to fall. I drive a truck at OSU and was, definitely, not looking forward to navigating the ice for the next two days.

Policy shmolicy! Our fearless leader (these words are subject to interpretation), we will call him “L”, is stickler when it comes to policy. When we my supervisor tried to explain the risks involved with the running of our department to “L” he disappeared only to return with a copy of the policy book. Quoting from it “L” informed us that “According to policy we are to wait for notification on a television or radio newscast or to check the website for closures.”

Yada Yada.. I am home today, tomorrow and the rest of the weekend and it is just barely raining  8=)

Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)

If you’re like us, you’re going to go to a New Year’s Eve party tonight, and as soon as the calendar turns over, somebody will inevitably start slurring the tune “Auld Lang Syne” because they thought they heard it in a movie or something (perhaps “200 CigarettesCigarettes reviews” was on TV earlier in the day). But people very rarely nail down the correct melody, nor do they know all of the words. And what does “Auld Lang Syne” even mean?

Glad you asked! It began as a poem written by Scotland’s Robert Burns (pictured!) in 1788 (with a few of the lyrics cribbed from a James Watson ballad from 1711 called “Old Long Syne”). The tune is a traditional Scottish folk song, and it quickly gained popularity in the U.K. as a song sung at the end of the year as well as at funerals. As Brits emigrated to other parts of the globe, the tradition spread, and took hold in the United States as early as 1896. It didn’t become a popular American staple in this country until band leader Guy Lombardo played the tune during his year-end radio broadcast in 1929.

The title of the tune literally translates to “Old Long Since,” though people readily accept “Long Long Ago” or “In Olden Times” as reasonable transpositions. The first verse goes a little something like this: “Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?/ Should old acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne?/ For auld lang syne my dear/ For auld lang syne/ We’ll take a cup of kindness yet/ For auld lang syne.” That second part is actually the chorus, but it usually just gets treated as another verse.

So enjoy this particular version of the song or fire up one yourself (it helps if you have bagpipes or a pump organ), and raise your glass to a successful 2009 and an even better 2010.

This was the funniest movie I have seen in a long time! I couldn’t stop laughing through the whole thing. At one point I think I passed out for a second.

Two thumbs up from me (bb)

These prisoners in the Philippines beg to differ!

Here’s Jake’s Honda stuck in the snow.

He was actually heading the “other” way. He says his back end wen left all the way around and then he slid backwards to where you see it here. Oh and he “tried to use [his] e-brake to straighten it out”

On Christmas eve (the day it happened) the door you can see in this picture was completely covered with snow. You couln’t even see the window. This picture was taken the day after Christmas and the roads had been scraped and sanded.

When we get there I told him to start the engine to warm it up before we start pullin’ on it. He gets in from the passenger side and twists his 6’4″ frame over the center console. He starts it right up. It runs for about two minutes and dies. He rolls down his window and say “I think I ran all the gass out trying to get it out the other day”. I explained it was probably just the angle and we would have to pull it out without any “assistance” from the car.

We had arranged for Laurens dad to bring a chain to use in getting the car out. It took him several minutes to get there. Apparently he almost got stuck on his way to us. We hooked the chain up and in short time was able to get him out.

I fallowed him to the gas station and filled his tank. Then he fallowed me home…slowly and WITHOUT using any e-brake!.

When we got home and everyone was safe. We recapped the days evens. Can you believe he looked me right in the face and sad “I was going to go on to Lauren’s house and get my Christmas gift but I figured I better not since her dad almost got stuck”. I am thinking about burning his car to the ground!

Let me start by hoping you all had a spectacular Christmas. The Hoxsie house had it’s traditional Enchilada dinner on Christmas eve and of course opened our presents from the tree.

It snowed, correction, It was a BLIZZARD out there. No realy it was a blizzard. You couldn’t see 100 feet in fron of your house. Jake , our oldest son, tried to drive to his girlfriends house and got stuck in the ditch. I tried to warn him. But he knows more than me about driving even though I was a truck driver for 13 years and have over 1.5 million miles under my feet.

In his defense: When I went to get him from the side of the road I was surprised by the slickness and I got stuck too. I won’t even try to defend myself. I made an idiot move and got stuck. We had a passerby pull me out and went home.

My Montero is burried!

I guess we’ll go get it un-stuck today (12/26). He thinks I will let him drive it after it’s out, but he’s mistaken, I assure you. His “snow driving” days are over.

The tree was a little bare this year but I have to admit my family is awesome. In spite of the obviouse financial crunch we are all going through they realy pooled together and was able to resist depression. It sounds corny butt they realy held up.

My two younger boys, Daren and Dylan got pay as you go phones. and it was exactly what they wanted. My sister-in-law, Kim, gave each of my three boys an MP3 player and they loved them.

Daren and Dylan and their phones

Originally, I had gotten a “touch” MP3 player for Daren. But after conferring with Kim we decided to get the phones and let “Aunt Kim” do the heavy lifting (if ya know what I mean).

My wife and I agreed that we would not get each other gifts this year. I was blessed with

my gift about 17 years ago when she married me. And then she gave me three wonderful children.

With wrapping paper everywhere and our bellies so full we can’t hardly walk. We will begin the fun task of clean up. First the wrapping paper then the boxes and last but not least the tree. Thank God it was a fake tree this year. But those decorations are going to be a b!tch to get off that tree.

Thank you all for reading and we wish you a beautiful New Year!

Good Times!

My son Daren and Dylan were caught in an avalanche on Christmas day after a blizzard the previous night.