Archives for July 2016

More to blog about this weekend, but got Lailah tomorrow

Man, I've still at least 2 more (interesting) stories to go, and I've got Lailah to myself tomorrow - I'm never gonna to catch up with blogging the stuff that happened this past weekend. Have I mentioned what happened on Sunday?? Heaven! (How does that song go??) Doesn't matter - I was invited to go boating on Lake Minnetonka! What a great afternoon. With a great bunch of loving people. Will … [Read more...]

Saturday’s outing with Lailah

To set the stage: My kitchen breakfast nook area has a huge window looking out toward the walk leading to my front door. <you'all have probably seen it in my Lailah kitchen table videos.> I'm eating breakfast this past Saturday morning, reading my newspaper (on my e-device). And, I hear some giggling outside, which makes me look up. And, I see this little girl looking in my window, … [Read more...]

NPR story about Republican leaders not attending their own convention

This, to me, is a very interesting story (the attached NPR story). Apparently there is something "important" going on, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio this week. Some sort of "convention". No, I don't think it's the Model Railroading convention. Nor, is it "ComicCon". I wonder which convention it is? Uh. Is it the "Keystone cops" convention?? Maybe it's the "three stooges" convention. No, … [Read more...]

Friend with IT background unwilling to learn about new technologies(?), or just tired

Friend of mine (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) is an IT person with as many years of experience as myself. Wanted to share some "documents" with them. Me: "...Do you or use Dropbox?" Them: "Never heard of it." Well, OK, Then. I guess, based on your response, it seems you aren't even remotely interested in learning about it. Fine, be that way, I'll send them to you the … [Read more...]

Curly red-headed actress with southern accent?

Help this old gizzer out - I'm trying to place an actress, but am not able to remember her name or which show she was on. This person had curly red hair, and spoke (I thought) with a southern accent. My first idea was a character on Roseanne, then I thought Designing Women (and no, I'm not thinking of Annie Potts). Anyone have a clue? ----spoiler ahead---- After typing this up, and giving it … [Read more...]

Woman in downtown parking lot

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

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

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

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)

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…

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)

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)

[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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...]