The dance recital

Shelly had her dance recital..a few weeks ago actually now i guess...and it was...an adventure let' say. I have some pics, but frankly, am at work right now and also to lazy to upload them, but they didn't turn out well in any event. Just picture a 6 year old girl in a striped jail outfit and cap dancing to 'jailhouse rock ' by elvis.

The big thing was she went up on stage and danced. There were probably 300 or so people in the chelsea auditorium and I was worried she'd get stage fright, but she went up there and carried on like a trooper..it was awkward, discombobulated and clumsy, but so was every other routine i saw, so i was very proud!

Same time, i'm freakin' done with dance. That thing was a job to get to the recital. I made the mistake of getting shelly dressed BEFORE we left, which, sure as shat...she tore her nylons on the way to the recital. Well, i think she snagged them, then picked at em' till there was a hole the size of an orange over her knee. So, i of course was torked. This happened 50 minutes before the show started and I only had time to scour chelsea for new nylons..i tore through pamida...the drug store..a dance store, which of course was closed for some fn' reason...a grocery store looking for a pair of little girls black nylons...nothing. Finally, in my darkest hour i pull into a cvs as my last resort and found the last pair of 10-12 year old black nylons..SCORE!

So i rip out of the drugstore and get back to the auditorium with about 10 minutes to spare...sweating my balls off and frankly kinda strung out. When i get back there i hear Alicia, who had been with shelly and trying to help her fix the nylons was getting an earful from the dance teacher about the holes in them.."what are you gonna do? you have to get more? we only have 15 minutes? how can you fix it??!!" Seriously..these people are nuts there.

Show was 2 hours of extreme boredom and 2 minutes of entertainment when shelly danced. I needed a severe break from the hundreds of little girls dressed up as hookers and wearing makeup like transexual clown hookers. it was a weird day.

What else..Oh, i've been building a retaining wall around my deck this summer..almost done..been some work, but saved a ton of money doing it myself..it's gonna look sharp. I'm excited to plant some stuff in it..which also is the most rainbow thing i'll ever say on this blog outside of a dancing with the stars running diary.

i'll try to get some pics up of all this....i'm just so lazy and it's so nice being lazy.

It's Legal in Eagle

Last nite Alicia and I went to Eagle to Chez' Cansfield to visit mh buddy Tim and his gf Nicole. Good time had by all. The drive was LOOOOOOOONG. I can't believe he does that every day...over an hour..each way...and that was with good traffic on the highway. My hats off to him, couldn't do it myself.

Anywho, got up there, drank some beers, they made us a great Chicken Marsala for dinner. Just delish, had some more beers and then we hit the Eagle Inn. Which, as it turns out, Eagle Inn is Applachia for "hilljacks" I think. I have to honestly say, and Tim gave us due notice before hand, which we shook off, that this would be the most redneck place we've ever been. I thought it wouldn't be worse then stivers or katies here in chelsea-dexter area, but man....it blew those out of the water. Everyone was at least 2 bills...EVERYONE. Even the chicks...Tim's postal carrier was wearing a tight fitting skirt/dress of some sort that she kept hiking up while dirty dancing by herelf on the dance floor to karaoke songs. Another 400 pounder was singing' "strokin' it" while walking up and grinding on his equally large girlfriend....and we met 'double d' which was how he introduced himself to us. Why is he called double d? Cause it stands for dumber then dogshit. Really.

The dj's for the karaoke were fantastic. The one guy looked EXACTLY like Todd's dad..the hair, the build...everything, only he threw down karaoke like that japanese guy throws down wet hot dogs. he was hardcore. It was like watching a movie were someone was acting so over the top intentionally, just to be funny, but he wasnt', he was serious...and knew the words to every 70's song that came up...oh, and was wearing a full blown matching MSU basketball jersey and matching shorts. Terrific. His partner wore the standard air brushed wildlife shirt...with two bears on it....and jean shorts naturally. He was kinda the ring leader, but paled in comparison to his partner in my opinion.

Anywho, we went back, went outside, and then, not sure how, we all realized we had locked ourselves out of tim's house. So, there's no spare key....except in Ionia...all the doors and windows were locked but their upstairs bedroom one. So, we tried climbing on the roof in the back...no dice. We tried climbing on the roof in the front...no dice..after about 45 minutes of this Tim went next door to get a ladder. I went around back to take a leak and thought "hey, people on tv use credit cards to break into doors all the time..." so, i tried it on the garage door..it was deadbolted...no dice. I walked around to the back patio door..wasn't dead bolted...I slipped the credit card in..ran it up and down..the lock popped right out, and I walked right in.

Moral of the story here as always is: I rule.

But it was a great time....tim and nicole were awesome hosts and would def hit up there again!

Camo Vests

Here are the camo vests from the wedding...yes, we had to wear camo vests during the reception. I was stage left...or maybe i was stage right...or in the back...or wrestling tigers while benchpressing volvo's. Not sure. One thing is for sure, whatever it was I was doing, I was looking real good doing it....if you could see me that is...I mean, I was camoflouged from the waist up. And from the waist down i'm basically an african american. Anywho, this is a snapshot of the wedding...in a time capsule...now.

I saw Scot

Yeah, I know..i've been lazy posting lately. However, i've had things to write about, just nothing i've that's made me jump to the computer to write about. Which is good, as this blog has been a filler for me in life when i've been bored, or haven't had much to do. Therefore, i've been good and active!

just got home from basketball..Alicia has been picking up the girls for me so I can play. REALLY appreciative of that. I don't think many people would want to be in a relationship with a devoted father of two girls, let alone make the sacrifices she does to help them out. Pretty unique if you ask me. Oh, and we won...finally. My team sucks, but it's good to get out .....

The one question i've been asked a LOT is what did i think of Scot's wedding? And, the long and the short of it is really simple. I miss Scot and his friendship. He was one of my best friends and frankly, since he's been engaged and at the wedding, it's felt like he only has communicated with me, and our other close friends out of necessity and out of want. Which, when around him, translates into awkwardness. I have lots of instances I could say, that may not even be on his radar, but the bottom line is, i hope the kid is happy, and i hope, someday, he'll want to be friends again.

I saw him last week..him and his dad were driving down the road and waved to me..caught me off guard and i just flashed a half heartedly surprised wave back. Then it dawned on me...that may be the last time i see him. Which, i also thought at the wedding, so, who knows.

My big summer projt this year is building a retaining wall/planters box around my deck. Well, i'm not so much as my handyman Jim is. Having him doing it saving me over a thousand dollars from what a co-worker's brother was gonna charge me. Advantage: JJ. It's gonna pretty much rock. I need to do Sooooo much stuff for the house yet, but it's slooooowly coming along. It's still pretty much a bachelor pad with kids toys everywhere, but it's mine...and that' a-ok in my book. I have to admit, i never thought i'd enjoy decorating or planning things like planters boxes and paint schemes...but man, time really does change all.

Shelly just finished her dance recital! She'd been taking a dance class every saturday and the recital was last week...several good stories with that...which will be mynext post!!! With pics...i hope