What is on...

Your desk? There is the corner of my little cube. A picture of the beans for some moitivation, she yells sell daddy sell, from time to time to keep my butt in gear. A picture of wifey so I can steal some quick glances at my babe throughout the day. Of course my tea, because I can't breath and my sinus pressure is building by the hour. I think my right eye is going to pop out of my head at any time. Other than some photos of the family and a few note pads that is all I got. Oh and some winter green lifesavers under my monitor, these are my personal addiction. I can't stop eating these things, I am out of control.

Nothing like having a head cold/sinus thingy going on. I forgot my glasses, and my wallut. I am just glad that I got the beans dropped off. She is starting to put her jackets on herself. We put it on the floor and she puts her arms in and flips it over her head and shazam good to go. This morning wifey had to be at school early. As beans and I were packing up I told her to find the jacket she wanted to wear and meet me at the front door. She showed up with the jacket on upside down, the hood was on her butt. She was all smilies and asked me to zipper it. I didn't want to tell her she did it wrong so I just let her know it is warm out so we don't need to zipper today. The second we walked into nana and pop pops they picked up on it, and said wow who put their jacket on themselves? Beans was all smiles and proud, good start to a Friday.
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Cars

I think almost one out of every five cras that I see is new. I know the economy is the pits and I know my personal finances have taken a slap in the face. What I don't know is how I see audis, bmws, benzs, acuras, high end jeeps, pacificas every where. I am at the wawa getting gas right now and a quick span I see a benz 550, jeep loredo limited, a boxster, a new acura tl, of course we have a saturn, accord, pontiac g6 and even a gmc jimmy which are all nice cars too. I know prices have dropping, yet the loans are tougher to get. My lease is up in a few months I sure hope the prices keep dropping. As far as the economy it pretty much stinks.

I think tonight is the night to purchase the treadmill, well, tonight or tomorrow depending on when the beans would like to co-operate. I seem to have a bit of a head cold and let's hope it doesn't make the move to the flu. Today a little tea should get me thru, cross your fingers it doesn't get any worse. I hope some running and exerciese will allow me to sweat it out. Basically, I am expecting this treadmill to solve all of my problems. I sure hope it comes with the seeds to a money tree.

I also have a small confession: I love hootie and the blowfish.
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Its tricky...

I remember dropping her off at her house one night, I walked her to the door and she said that maybe this isn't working out. That it is all going a bit too fast. I heard the words that she was saying, I understood what she was saying. I was reading what she was writing, feeling the beats she was throwig down, I was catching the drift of what she wanted to say, I just really didn't believe her. Her eyes told a different story than the words she was speaking. I told her that I understood that she was in a really serious relationship and that we the ' us ' was moving just a bit too fast. I told her to take all the time that she needs, and that I will wait as long as it takes. I remember walking away from her house and to my truck, I was thinking that it sucks that we just kinda broke up or whatever just went down. Then a smile came over my face and I was happy that she liked me so much that she was scared or nervous. I knew we were getting pretty serious pretty fast, and I was comfortable with that. I gave her a day before I called and asked her to go to the movies and set up another date. She agreed. I had a good feeling about where we were going and how we were getting there. Another few weeks and it happens again. Christmas eve she put the breaks on, once again we were moving too fast. Yes, Christmas eve, you heard it right. Telling this story I have left out all of the million things that led me to believe that we would be together. When we talked our eyes would lock, the last phone call of the night, the sweet little things that we said that no one elese had, sweet and don't, mtyk, our early morning talks at 4:40am on our way to the gym. Sure she slowed things down or broke up with me twice, yet that was because she knew what I knew, she felt it, as did I. I will always stand by the fact that the second slow down never really happened as we were on the sofa watching a movie (making out) while she was saying it, so that holds no ground. Within a year we were engaged, and married within a year of being engaged. Now 4 years and a beans later we are stronger than ever and looking forward to forever.
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Last dance for love...

Hahaha, I djed/ran parties/catered/was around the private party sceen for so gosh darn long that when I hear last dance my body just shuts down. Come on baby dance dance dance, that means get the heck out so we can clean up have a few beers and actually listen to good music. It means you don't have to go home, but you have to get outta here. In cold weather I would open all the doors and freeze people out, warm weather we would just play the most annoying loop we could find.

Spring is in the air people the sun is up a bit longer and stays up a bit later. Daylight savings time is around the corner, and I feel great. Well, slightly chubby but still pretty darn good. Two months to a ten mile race, and wifey and I decided to get a treadmill hopefully this week. I love to run and that will be my salvation as the cement is just too hard and it is just still too cold. Also, our thinking is that this time next year we will have been working out I.e. Running all winter long. That should lead to not having to crash course get ready for broad street.


I love me some 80s music, late 80s and we have a new station in philly that I have been grooving to it gets my toes a tappin and my mind down memory lane..... Always something there to remind me, that I love you babe..... Culture club, old school janet, michael, prince, debarge, blind mellon, blues traveler, a-ha, tiffany, debbie gibson... And yet I am digging the new TI and justin song, gotta have that hook and this song has it.
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It was ....

Another few weeks till they spoke again. I was at the same friends house who had the bbq, and the phone rang. I answered, cuase that's what I do, grab the phone at other people's houses. It was her, holy cow, I said hello she said hello, it was all kind of magic. She said well, is so and sos wife there, I said yeah hold on one second. When she came over to get the phone I said, it is my girlfriend calling for you. They bothed laughed which is a good sign. I know my buddy worked with wifey and was constantly putting in the good word for me. It was another month or so, maybe 3 weeks till we spoke again. My friend called me and said that wifey ok'd giving me her phone number. I called and we talked a bit and I set up our first date. At this point I was in my old old job working 60 - 90 hours per week, djing and catering on the weekends. We were attempting to launch a bar (which didn't work), and expand a dj company with which we had already amassed a good market share. I guess my point is, I was a busy bee, yet I knew I had to make time for her. I had to. I picked her up at her house, and I still remember the sweater she had on and how beautiful she looked. We went to a nice italian dinner and totally hit it off, as first dates go it was smooth. We never had a break in converstion, and had so much in common. I took her home, walked her to the door and she planted one on me! Shazam! I remeber talking on the phone with her for hours on end, and thinking about her non stop. Our second date was kind of a blurr, I picked her up and we went into town to my favorite place called the rose tattoo. The food is amazing and the ambiance is even better. I remember we sat at the bar and chatted then our table and chatted it was really like we knew each other forever, we just clicked. I also remember she wore a low cut top, and I knew she did that on purpose. Testing me out, I guess, making sure that my eyes were focused where the should be. Date 2 was a raging success! At this point I was hooked, I was in this and new it was something special. Not yet ready to say fate or destiny, yet I knew we were going somewhere, and so did she, but after a month or so it seemed it was moving a bit too fast for her...

Side note: nikki for some reason I can't comment on your blog from me phone. Not sure why.
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And the story starts...

The story of how wifey and I met, part one. It was a nice hot summer day. I walked into one of my old college friends house who was having a bbq. I think I was running a bit late as I really didn't travel out to the burbs much, I usually stayed straight NE ( as hard as that is to say). I remember walking into a room that was filled with a good number of people that I didn't know. When I walked thru the front door I saw two young ladies sitting at the table directly in front of me. One was facing me and the other was facing away from me and they were in conversation. The one facing me smiled, and I thought to myself, wow she certainly is very cute ( in guy terms cute is very good, as opposed to when girls hear cute they think kittens). The next hour or so was pretty uneventful just walking around pressing the flesh, shaking hands and kissing babies. Saying hello and yes it has been too long. I asked my buddy what her deal was, she worked at his school, was friends with his wife (they coached together), and that I should probably stay away as she was ending a relationship that was just not working out. She was going through a rough time. Usually that would mean GREEN LIGHT. We chatted a bit and I remember we were having a few beers and also enjoying water ice and some vodka mixed together, mmmm ( for you people that don't know what water ice is, look up ritas water ice. I would google it and make a link but I am driving). Anywho, the water ice ran out, and she was asking who had a car, and I beeing as smooth as sandpaper said, pretty sure we all do. To which she replied who has a car that can get out of the driveway. Well, I was last to the party naturally my car was last in the driveway, off we went. On the way to get the water ice the conversation never stopped, never lulled, and we found oursleves saying ' me too' a lot. You like to breath, me too! You drink a lot of water, me too! You like to eat food, me too! Ok, so it was actually a bit more in debth, but you get the drift. We got to ritas which is now called ' our ritas ' ordered up our water ice and of course I paid. Didn't want to look cheap or anything. The ride back was filled with great conversation and me thinking holy smokes she is the real deal, the total package. We got back to the house and I said to my buddy how great we just hit it off, and he again said to slow it down and if we really hit it off to give her some time and space...

That's about as much as I can't type with my little thumbs. I will try to do installment 2 next week.

And yes that is our pic, I keep it stored on my phone so I can check it out whenever I want. Aunt K, I can take it down pretty easy if you like as not to have your pic out there on the interwebs.
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Older than I once...

Older than I once was, but younger than I will be.....

I am turning 36 next month and I am pretty sure that I am excited about it. Excited to be officially into my late 30s. 35 sounds like a young gentleman, 36 sounds like a man, a grown ass man. Not quite an old timer, almost 40, and a quick 10 from 50. Here I am driving to work with the radio blaring and typing away on my blackberry. Today I happen to be wearing khakis and a nice black shirt, usually I am jeans and a T, and I even rock the long johns under a short sleeve shirt from time to time. 36 seems to be a weird age for me, I am more excited about my b-day than I have been in the past, yet it is an odd excited. I am at a cross roads. Do I need to trade my sneakers for loafers, my mac for a pc, set my volume at 5 instead of 8? I am always amazed when I can actually feel myself going into the next stage of my life. It has nothing to do with age, yet maturity. With me I suppose this might be a point at my life that things have slowed down a bit in my brain and I actually have a second to sit back and enjoy, and figure out who I am and where I want to go. The good part is that I am one step closer to being able to nap, and drive like an idiot- I think that starts at 56.
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Sign guys

I am not sure where you guys all live. I know a bunch of my readers are not from the united states. I just need to point out that I live in a suburb of Philadelphia not to far from a pretty big shopping district. From time to time (almost every weekend) we have the sign guys who are on each corner, they stand there and hold signs for whatever store is having a giant sale or in the case of this weekend we have circut city going out of business. I took this picture as I was driving by to hit the mattress store for the beans big girl bed (more on that later). I see this guy holding the sign up, and he is wearing a john riggins (awesome football player from washington dc) throw back jersey. These jerseys were the rage about 6 years ago, and cost about $300 bucks. These guys bundle up and go outside and hold those signs, I see them with ipods, talking on their cell phones just chillin. They must be making some decent money to afford all that stuff. I think I am going to apply for some weekend work.

We bought the beans a twin bed, a big girl bed. She is almost two and certainly does not sleep well in her crib, so we are making a big deal and are getting everything ready for Friday night. She wanted purple sheets, so we got her purple sheets (and also sheets we like). It is gonna be big girl bed palooza on friday.

Ran two miles last night in the freezing cold, which certainly does not mesh well with the metal in my knees. I feel pretty good today and don't plan on running again till Fri nightish depending on how I feel. Broad Street run first weekend in may - 10 miles.
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A quick letter...

Dear little Griff Dog,



I happened to have opened the beans valentines day card the other day, and I was not happy. A note at the bottom says not to tell your dad about us. Grif, you are almost twice her age. You don't have anything in common. You live three hours away. Most importantly you have no job, no serious elementary or even high school education. You don't drive, or own anything no property, no house no nothing. I have this weird feeling that maybe your dad put you up to this, heck maybe he even wrote this note. Just keep in mind young sir that you will be spending the night at pjs on thursday and I will be watching you. Watching you like a hawk does its prey. Understand griff that if you step out of line just once that pj will be there to drop the hammer. Your only 3 you say, well then you should know better. You are old enough to understand that your actions will have consequences, and if you haven't learned that yet, no time like the present. Also, let your dad know I am watching his punk a*# as well.



See you on thursday.



Pj

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Tangled up in you...

This is a Staind song, and it works for Valentines day so here goes...

you're my world the shelter from the rain.

you're the pills that take away the pain.

you're the light that helps me find my way.

you're the words when i have nothing to say.

and the world where nothing else is true.

here i am still tangled up in you.

i am still tangled up in you.

you're the fire that warms me when i am cold.

you're the hand i have to hold as i grow old.

you're the shore when i am lost at sea.

you're the only thing that i like about me.

and in this world where nothing else is true.

here i am still tangled up in you.

how long has it been, since this storyline began

and i hope it never ends

and goes like this forever.

in this world where nothing else is true

her i am tangled up in you

Shazam

I am slowly turning into an avid Tae bo er. Well, a few posts back I received a comment saying that tae bo wanted to send me and wifey some t-shirts. Sure why the heck not, and believe me I am rocking that bad boy today. Most importantly I got this gem of an autographed picture and hung that shizzle right up on the fridge. He is pretty motivating and now he is staring at me when I get my oj in the morning.

This is going to be bad, but I saw this t-shirt during the oj simpson trial that said -

Drink apple juice cause oj will kill you.

Sorry about that, just whenever I see the word oj, I laugh.

Tonight was one of the nights were wifey had to go take a class, attend a seminar or some schooly type thing. Just the regular schedule of a teacher. Once again it was daddy and beans for night night, we had a great dinner at nana and pop pops then home for some books and a good nights sleep. We sat on the potty for a long time (potty training aint easy), then put our jammies on. After we read each book and I mean every book that she owns, we did some prayers and into the crib. This is where it gets tricky. Make sure she is holding hands with the correct stuffed animals, stroke her hair for a bit and hope her eyes shut. Then you have to get out of the room without waking her up. Usually that is a non issue as I know where the creeky floor boards are. Last night the process took about 40 minutes, due to my lack of knowlege of her room. I am certainly not adjusted to be standing in mommy's spot, its a longer walk to the door and uncharted territory for me as far as creeks. I would think she was out cold, make my move for the door, Daddy, snagged. I certainly don't mind going back to tell her I am still there and to stroke her hair a bit more. I would rather stand by her crib telling her that everything is going to be ok than watching something dumb on tv. I made it to the door a few times and even opened it twice before being urged back to her side. If I would have left she certainly would have fallen back asleep, and I would have been sitting on the sofa chillin. The moments I want to take advantage of and remember are the ones with my family not the tv.
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Greatest idea ever!!

This all started off one drunken night at PSU. My friend and I were thinking up business ideas, and we came up with ChairPants! Seriously, if the snuggly or whatever that thing is worked than ChairPants will sell a billion. I haven't googled this or looked it up for fear that it already exists. I have had this bumping around in my head for about 10 years now. I always pictured some light weight metal rods unfolding from the pants to form a chair. Easy as 1-2-3. BANG. Waiting in line for the bathroom at the local watering hole, chairpants. At a little league T ball game, chairpants! Waiting in line for tickets, chairpants! Standing room only at the concert or game, that's what they think - ChairPants! I mentioned this at work the other day and low and behold a guy comes to work and tells me that he came up with the name, Chants. Chairpants. This is groundbreaking stuff here folks. Cargo chants. Khaki chants. Dress chants. You name it and we got it! 14 easy payments of $ 9.99. Brilliant. At the local dmv and no seats are left, luckily you wore the CHANTS. Don't forget your Chorts for the summer. Did I mention that the pants come in regular chairs, bar stools, and loungers? SHAZAM
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The mecca

This is my local WAWA. At least a pic as I pull the drive by this am. Yes, I am back to mroning blogging. If you don't know what a wawa is I will explain. It is a super mini mart emphasis on super. This place does it all breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hot coffee that people drive out of their way for, hoagies, drinks, milk, eggs, you name it and wawa has it.

On a side note: this lady with the 8 kids. Well, I guess 10 kids .... I wish I could get my thoughts out coherently. It just really irks me. It gets under my skin. My wife and I have one child, and its hard, realling effing hard. I don't know what her plan is/was but this couldnt/shouldnt have been it. I along with everyone else see the success of John and kate plus 8, and this other show with the 16 kids, and I wonder is this going to be the new rage to get your own show? Is this what some people are doing? Lots of people will do anything to be famous, and I certainly question the motivation to have 8 babies at the same time.
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Broad Street Run

Is a mere 3 months away. Time to lace em up and get one foot in front of the other. I haven't done much in the way of training yet cause its cold out and I am kind of a sissy. I hate being cold, and the cold does not react well to the metal in my knees. Last year around this time I got hyalgon shots in each knee ( a gel shot for cusion, 3 shots each knee). This year the plan is to hold off as long as possible, or buy a treadmill and hope that is easier on the wheels. I should probable lose 15 ish lbs as well, which should be pretty easy if I focus on my diet, and some tae bo. It is always easiest when you have a deadline, without goals and deadlines I certainly would be pretty lazy. 10 miles was a heck of a lot easier 10 years ago. Sure I drank a lot back then, yet that was pre two knee surgeries and I was working out daily and playing basketball a few times per week. 10 miles downhill, pssst I just went down and did it. Now, I am stressing 3 months prep time. It takes a lot longer to ramp up to the 10 miles. Low impact cardio is the ticket now a days. Wish me luck, training starts today.
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Careful

One of those mornings where everything goes according to plan and I still fall behind. I had that morning all day today. I was on top of my shizzle and still felll behind. If you have kids you know what I am talking about. You feel as if you are going at normal speed, yet you are a half step back. By the end of the day you just throw your hands in the air and say screw it. This can only be from lack of stellar sleep for 21 months. Some days you are going up hill and it is a bit of a fight to get to where you have to go.

Maybe I am a bit sluggish cause I gave lots on my mind lately. I have a few people that are dear to me that are having some medical issues. All implicate something serious, but nothing is confirmed yet. It is the waiting that really sucks. You wait and you say some prayers and wait and say some more prayers. You think good thoughts, you stay positive. And that shit gets you worn out. I have a buddy, and this buddy has a family member that is undergoing some tests that suck. A little background is that my buddy is one of my closest friends, he is the guy who says I am a bit soft, that I have some girl traits, that I am short, that my blog is weak, it is all good hearted fun. And well, he is balding (to put it nicely, zing). He is the same guy who knows that when I don't call for a week or text that's it is all good. The same guy that our kids will grow up together. And I know his punk ass is reading. Anything you need, I got ya.

Happy Friday yall. I have a big weekend of taxes, costco, melting snow and cleaning the house ahead of me.
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Calvin

I was torn between another picture of the flippin snow and this ' young and dumb ' tattoo. I got this when I was 18 and it does have some good reason why I got it, yet that doesn't mean I don't sometimes regret it. And certainly doesn't mean that if I had it removed I wouldn't regret that. You can see a little bit of hobbs which was curtesy of a bored afternoon at good old PSU. Young and dumb, I chalk that up to an era when people wore Z-cavs and guys wore bikini underwear we all do things that are really cool at the time and not so cool 17 years later.

I woke up a little bit late this morning to a nice covering of snow. I am not going to say I have any sort of ocd or anything, I call myself type A. Well, type A pick and choose, only certain things. I.e. I couldn't leave without shoveling the walk. I guess my walk is about 60ish feet in front of my house and I will not let some little kid judge me on his way to catch the bus in the morning. I can just picture these little lads walking through my neighborhood shaking their heads at the non shovelers. Not me baby, they get to my house and say wow PJ beasted this bad boy before we even woke up this morning. He is a good guy, we don't have to worry about slipping or getting snow in our shoes here.

Deep down I still know those little punks took sammy (see first week of posts, I can't link from my phone).

The snow sure is beautiful on my morning drive! Wifey also has a two hour dealy, which means once again I got ready by the light on my phone. Shazam, its just how I do it.
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Purrrdy

Sure it looks nice, yet not exactly blogging weather.
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Awkward

Well, I sppose that my awkward Tuesdays are behind me, or at least me blogging on tuesdays about awknardness. I might get lucky and get it right on a Tues, but I can't get it together to link to Tova each monday night and she set up some cool linky thing on her site, yet I can't see that on my phone. So here I am blogging about not blogging about being totally awkward on Tuesdays.

Update on wifey's car. Pop pop somehow got it started, and drove it to the mechanics who now thing that nothing is wrong. Well, it wouldn't start this morning for me (I am certainly not able to fix anything) or her. Who the heck knows. I just know that if nothing is wrong than it won't cost anything to fix it.

Quick question; what do you guys think of tattoos?

We are into Feb and I have no idea where the heck the time goes. Valentines day right around the corner. It used to be so easy hit tiffany's grab a little something something and I was good to go. Now, not so easy. I have to get creative and we usually set limits on money to be spent. This year maybe $10 bucks. I think I will go get some noodles and glue and make some great artwork, or a little heart bear. as a guy, valentines day is kinda BS. Just some made up holiday. When your dating its great that you can brag to your friends that you went this place or that place or got this and that. When your married for a few years and the money is no longer hers and his, its now ours. Spending that chunk of change just doesn't seem the right thing to do.
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MONDAY, dirty dirty Monday.

Monday strikes again. What a dirty dirty to pull. Over the weekend wifey and I heard soom knocking under her hood (the car). We made an appointment for her to see the mechanic this afternoon after school. Low and behold. I ran out to warm both cars per usual (that's how I do it), and my car started up with a roar, well a regular car noise. Hers not so much. The darn thing wouldn't start. Monday strikes again. Booyah. Let's also throw it out there that this economy sucks and I am in sales, hence we are not exactly swimming in the cash right now. In our PJ cutbacks AAA (triple A was on the cut list) so we will have to pay for towing, nice. And then pay for whatever is wrong, the good news is that we have a mechanic that we trust and won't rip us off. Good start to the week. Hope you all jump the week off better than I did.

Congrats to the Steelers, great game.
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