First story of the day. After having spent a totally wonderful day with little Lailah yesterday, I had plans on getting together with BFF Rick and a few other people for dinner and theater show in the evening (that story will be for another post). We had agreed to meet the the "Old Spaghetti Factory" in downtown MPLS, on Washington. I've been there once or twice before, and the restaurant has … [Read more...]
Seeing South Pacific in the evening after having Lailah that afternoon
July 17, 2016 By
Huh. Well. Starting from around 5:30pm Friday, thru 11pm tonight, it's been a whirlwind of "activity", in the life of Brian. You can tell with my lame opening of "Huh. Well.", that I'm just too dad-blame tired right now (midnight) to write all about what's transpired during this 30 hour period, since it would probably take me a couple of hours to do it, and Mr. Crabby didn't get to take a nap … [Read more...]
Blogging milestones as of 7/13/2016
July 13, 2016 By
Blogging Milestones: Created my WordPress blog in Nov/Dec, 2012. Received my first "comment" to one of my blog pages from an outsider (someone whom I didn't know) in Feb, 2014, inquiring about a Model Railroading book they were interested in. They apparently found my bog/website via a google search, looking for a specific (and rare) Model Railroad book - of which I had a duplicate copy and … [Read more...]
Website CSS changes – documented
July 13, 2016 By
This is a technical post regarding CSS changes made early on, when first creating this website in late 2012 and thru-out 2013. Top Image - Original CSS, Bottom Image - My tweaked CSS Basically, adding a black bar, with white text on each of the sidebar widgets, and making the background of the same area white, instead of fading into the gray background. Then, kind of reversing the main area, … [Read more...]
Apology (w/explanation) to my subscriber(s)
July 12, 2016 By
An apology is in order, along with an explanation. When I first created this blog, 3-1/2 yrs ago, I would only write and post a blog entry, on average, a couple of times a month, and would then manually copy that posting over to Facebook since this WP blog didn't have any actual readers. After leaving USPS in the fall of 2014, I stopped posting to this WP blog, and just started writing my blog … [Read more...]
going to be that kinda day…
July 10, 2016 By
Closed the windows an hour ago, mistakenly thinking it was going to be hot one today. Forgot to turn on the Air...kinda stiffing now inside. Guess I can re-open the windows since it's only supposed to be low '80s. Did a load of laundry, put the washed clothes in the dryer, added a new load in the washer. Washer timer alarm went off like it usually does, -45 mins later. Went to move the second … [Read more...]
Dealing w/recent events, & confidence (2 of 2)
July 8, 2016 By
I am a bit down today. You know or can figure out why. [if not, please see previous post from today.] So, I'm looking at my old FB albums of Lailah and using those memories of our times together, to cheer me up. So, I can progressively see Lailah growing up, as I move from one album to another. [I am just OCD enough that for my FB albums, I put the date in the album title]. I'm looking at pics … [Read more...]
News, World Events, & Good vs. evil (1 of 2)
July 8, 2016 By
[part 1] Twenty years ago, my (ex)wife, Gail and I used to watch the 10pm "news" broadcast with Paul Majors almost every night before bed - we did this for the eleven years we were together. A bit more than ten years ago, I stopped reading the morning "news" paper that I used to read religiously every morning - had been doing that for probably twenty or twenty five years. Ten years ago, I … [Read more...]
Lunch with BFF Rick
July 7, 2016 By
Before heading out to have lunch with BFF Rick. Thought we were going to eat in the downtown skyway, but we ended up at RidgeDale, at Bar Louis, having blu/buffalo burgers and a beer(s). … [Read more...]
Initial interview with Thrivent
July 7, 2016 By
Had an initial "get to know you" thirty min phone interview with an IT director at Thrivent Financial last night (for the Appleton WI contract-to-hire position). And, my recruiter just called - Thrivent wants a face to face interview with me, scheduled for 7/21 (due to hiring mgr/director now on vac until then). Fortunately, Thrivent has a huge office presence here in the TC, and so this next … [Read more...]
Lailah, painting model cars
July 7, 2016 By
Lailah decided she wanted to paint one of her "Hot Wheels" cars on Tuesday. It's original color was white. I think she needs a bit more practice if she wants to become a professional body shop paint person. (I told her, don't give up your day job, just yet.) … [Read more...]
Movie suggestions by Amazon Prime
July 7, 2016 By
Amazon Prime recommended movie choices for the big guy (aka Moi) Hunt for Red October Or Jaws. Man, that's going to be one tough decision. (Crimson Tide wasn't on the suggested list, but since we're talking about "boat" movies...) … [Read more...]
Lailah and a child’s hand
July 6, 2016 By
After ~thirty-five years as an adult and not knowing what's it's all about, I am now able to relate to this short essay below (re: a child's hand laying casually on your arm, or their hand touching/exploring your face, or a tiny hand in your hand, walking together, outside), due to a little girl entering my life four years ago. It's been a truly wonderful, and beautiful, eye opening experience for … [Read more...]
Jesse Wiliams at the BET Awards
July 5, 2016 By
A fellow by the name of Jesse Williams gave an impassioned speech at the BET awards recently. It's been getting some (almost viral) press so I watched/listened to it, and didn't have any issue with it, actually thought it was a pretty good speech, and he's a very passionate, eloquent, articulate speaker. I'm not sure, but I may have even shared his speech here. At the time I thought no big deal - … [Read more...]
Surprise visitor today
July 5, 2016 By
I am having a guest / visitor today, and we're going to have a wonderful time together today. She truly rocks my heart. Can't. Wait. To. Enjoy. The. Day. With. Her. … [Read more...]
Storming
July 5, 2016 By
Severe rain storm here in DARK (but still beautiful) downtown Apple Valley. It's just sprinkling a bit now (after sounding like it was almost hailing), but the power went out for about three-five seconds, which is unusual for this side of town. ...back to our regularly scheduled program... … [Read more...]
Photography and Fireworks
July 4, 2016 By
The problem with shooting 280 fireworks photos (in the space of thirty minutes), is trying to figure out which are the "truly great" and which are only "good", the easy part will be throwing out the junky ones. Some of the "good" ones look "artsy-fartsy", and while I like them, i don't think others would agree. Going to try to review them and post only the top 10 percent - we'll see how that goes. … [Read more...]
A fav blogger of mine wants to give up…
July 3, 2016 By
One of my fav FB bloggers made a decision a week ago to take a break from writing, but then wrote the following post this morning. My South Carolina Life You might want to read her post first (to understand the context) before reading my comment to her: Susan, I had a friend over this morning, and while they were doing something in the kitchen, I got onto FB for a few mins, and noticed your … [Read more...]
Commentary on what qualifies a person to be president?
July 1, 2016 By
The following is a commentary I wrote last night as a response to a friend's post, and I thought I would share here as well. The topic was "trusting (or not trusting) so-and-so candidate". The version below has been edited and expanded on, with additional thoughts. Not any one politician/candidate can satisfy all 200 million eligible voters in the USA, 100% of the time. They all have to make … [Read more...]
