So this weekend was a surprise… not to me, but to my brother Michael. My brother Al and I flew out to Colorado to see him and surprise him for a birthday present (well, a little late, but not too late!). We had set the whole thing up with the help of Carrie, Michael’s wife. The look on his face when he got home that night… it was PRICELESS!

Let me start at the beginning. Our flight left Moline at 7pm, and you’ll never guess who was on it with us… Miss Iowa 2008 and her traveling companion. Al sat by Abbey and I sat by Catie. WooHoo!! Catie was a very nice and engaging young lady, talking with this old man the entire trip – she could have been doing a number of other things but she talked with me. I’ve put her blog on my blogroll at the side “Adventures of Abby and Catie” (not the same Abbey).

Anyway, back to Michael. We had our “catch up” time that night. The next morning, Grant was up as well. Let me tell you, he is one cool little three (almost four) year old. And, just like all my other nephews I have become “Unky Bill”; we thought it was funny because it was Uncle Al and his friend Unky Bill. We had breakfast a Mimi’s Cafe – let me tell you, they serve a great omelet! The muffin that comes with all breakfast entres is a meal in itself, as big as a softball and delicious. I actually ate enough there for the entire day, but it didn’t stop me from eating the rest of the day!

When we got back to Michael’s place, we ordered our tickets (later) and then just sat around and talked some more – with Grant as a major part of the conversation. Al and I both said we’d like to tour one of the microbreweries, and I think Michael and Carrie interpreted that as “let’s eat” and took us to the Walnut Brewery for a late lunch. I just had an appetizer and their Buffalo Gold ale – and was it good. Al said the same for the St. James Irish Red Ale that he had. One nice thing about this is that it is in campus town in Boulder – there was plenty of scenery IF you know what I mean!

When we returned to Michael’s place later, we watched a little TV (I think I napped, but I can’t say for sure!) and soon Nancy, Carrie’s mom, came over to take Grant over to her place for the night. It was nice to visit with her. And then, off we went to Coors Field to watch the Rockies play the Cincinnati Reds. It was an exciting game that the Rockies eventually won 7-6 due to a bases-loaded double by Matt Holliday. At the end of that double was a play that I thought I’d never see except in the movie Major League. Willy Taveras, the runner on first, was so close to Clint Barmes, the runner on second, that when he ran to score he had to slide to a different side that Barmes – he was that close and the ball was thrown home. Wow! The other Wow was where we sat. We were on the Wells Fargo Club Level. From the Rockie’s web site: “Behind the Wells Fargo Club seats are spacious, glass-enclosed, climate-controlled concourses. There are two full-service bars near sections 221 and 236; an ice cream, Java City espresso and sweet shop at section 223; and specialty stations offering a rotating menu of selections such as fresh pasta, hand tossed salad and hand-carved sandwiches near sections 221 and 236.” The big thing for us is that they were going 2 seats for the price of 1! What a deal! What a game! Another good thing about going to the ball game is that we met up with my mom’s brother Don, who lives in Littleton. It was nice to visit with him.

Sunday we were up early and off to the airport. We left Michael’s at about 7:20am; our flight left about 10:15am. The return flight was uneventful (but packed) and we got back about 1:20pm. The only bad thing about the whole weekend was that I had to do laundry when I got back!

I can’t believe it. I’ve lost my USB flash drive. (Maybe it’s Alzheimer’s setting in?) It’s a 4 Gb PNY USB flash drive and it had a lot of my WordPress development stuff on it. Yeah, I backed it up about a month ago, so I have a lot of it. However, the start of my latest theme is gone. Also gone is the work I’ve done on my own customized PHP calendar. I’ve got backups of nearly everything else on it in one place or another. I’ve retraced my steps, I’ve looked in all the likely and even unlikely places, I’ve even moved furniture thinking it slipped out of my pocket. All to no avail. I’ll keep looking, but I’m really angry with myself for losing it. ARGH!

Happy Birthday, Jena!

This is a true story, proving how fascinating the mind of a six year old is. They think so logically.

A teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her class. She came to the part of the story where first pig was trying to gather the building materials for his home. She read . ‘and so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw and said: ‘Pardon me sir, may I have some of that straw to build my house?’

The teacher paused then asked the class:

‘And what do you think the man said?’

One little boy raised his hand and said very matter-of-factly….

Happy Birthday, Michael!

The theme-writing bug. I was talking with a friend at work about themes in general and decided to take up the challenge of a completely different type of theme. I’ll be using it after it’s “done” in order to properly test it out – just to make sure all the wrinkles are ironed out. It’s going to be something quite different, much like my Office Use Only theme was different. That means I’ll be a bit sparse in posts; well, maybe not… I’ve been pretty sparse in posts anyway, lately! Anyway, I’ve got the concept; now to make it into a theme.

Happy Anniversary, BillH and KC. Hey, wait a tick! That’s ME. Happy anniversary, KC. I can’t believe you’ve been putting up with me for 30 years today. I love you.

Thanks, Ron!!

• At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
• Page yourself over the intercom. Don’t disguise your voice.
• Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
• Put your garbage can on your desk and label it ‘IN.’
• Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
• In the memo field of all your checks, write ‘For sexual favors’
• Finish all your sentences with ‘in accordance with the prophecy’
• Don’t use any punctuation
• As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
• Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
• Specify that your drive-through order is to go.
• Sing along at the opera.
• Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don’t rhyme?
• Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.
• Five days in advance, tell your friends you can’t attend their party because you’re not in the mood.
• Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Bottom.
• When the money comes out the ATM, scream “I won!, I won!”
• When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling “Run for your lives, they’re loose!!”
• Tell your children over dinner. “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”

Got a nice email from Patrick who is from the town of Oakville, Iowa. For those of you who don’t remember, Oakville is a small town that basically isn’t any more; well, it’s on the road to recovery but it’s a long road. Anyway, he’s set up a blog over at Blogger to document the flood at Oakville. You can click here to go to Patrick’s blog.

That I made it through another year! And it’s ALL about ME!

Happy birthday to ME,
Happy birthday to ME,
Happy birthday, happy birthday,
Happy brithday to ME (and many more!)

UPDATE: When I got up this morning, Breezomatic left me a “card” – she works second shift. How fun! Check it out:
 

Happy birthday, Janice!

Happy birthday, Eric!