I'm going up the country, baby, don't you wanna go

The Spouse and I took a ride up the country today...up to my sister's place.

This is what she sees from her front porch.


This is her eldest...Stephen and the puppy, Sophie.



The leaves have really started to turn out that way.


Not so much yet back here in suburbia.

I did something today that I haven't done in years...

....and that is...went to the Bills game. It was a little dreary out and started drizzling around half time, but hey..it wasn't freezing and snowing.



They put Bruce Smith's name up on the Wall. You can't really see by this picture, but trust me...his name is there.



And the Bills won on a last second field goal to be the ONLY undefeated team in the AFC East. Thats right...I said it...Bills and undefeated in the same sentence. That hasn't happened since 1992 or 93..one of those years

One of the funniest videos I've seen in a while....

Thanks to ChaCha for this one....



And then there's this one...

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend, you dont believe we're on the eve of destruction.

So, this is our backyard on Monday. More specifically, our pool on Monday. We've got some ambitious plans to upgrade the back that hasn't really had anything done to it in years. The pool is (was) about 16 years old. I'd say we got our money out of it. This is the pool on Tuesday....notice the railing fence has been taken down and most of the water drained.

This is the scene yesterday. Johnny Five came over to give us a hand. He wanted the scrap metal, he's got the scrap metal. Of course, in any project around here, there's beer involved.......
....and power tools. Beer and powertools...thats our motto!



And what was I doing whilst the boys were destrucing you ask? I wasn't just taking pictures, I played the part of helper and lugged all that scrap out front to JT's truck. Quite a nice job of stacking, don't you think?

This is all that's left. We just have to cut up the remnants of the liner into managable pieces and haul it out for garbage day on Monday. The garbage men are a little picky about what they pick up. If it's too heavy, it'll sit there.

When we were all done, we got cleaned up, JT went and picked up the bride and we went over to Famous Dave's for some ribs. And more beer.

Next on the agenda.....the deck. It's all coming down. That's a LOT of damn wood. Good thing there's people who are interested in taking it. We'll be having a 'deck destruction' party in the next couple of weeks.

We'll have beer.

Have you seen these things?

Those AquaGlobes that you see on tv are awesome! I just love them.

And they actually work like they're supposed to. My plants have not been happier.

I did a little work on the family room over the weekend. Hauled out my sander and my paint and my latex gloves and my cute little spongey brushes and gave the shelving unit a little facelift.

It went from this........


to this......


Ok..right about now you're thinking "B-F-D..it's the same picture". AuContraire my friends, its not the same picture. My facelift was so subtle that its hardly noticable. I painted the face of the shelves and a thin part of the crown moulding at the top black. It looks much more dramatic in person than it does in these crappy pictures that I took with my phone cuz my camera batteries were dead.

Step off, Martha Stewart...I'm here now.

Just some stuff for today while I'm sitting here in a quiet house cuz everyone is gone.

Silence is golden and I'm content.
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I cleaned the house the weekend before last. Moved furniture. Rearranged. Puttered. Just did stuff. One week later the house is still clean. Still smells clean too.

Way cool.

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This Empty Nest Business (ENB) isn't a bad gig . Its a dry run for ENB around here. #3 will be back in January. #4 will be back in May not counting Christmas Break. Am I allowed to say Christmas Break anymore? Did it officially become Winter Break? Can I even say Christmas? #2 prolly won't be back anytime soon. #1, well...she's still here, and I'm down with that...but she's never home very much and she'll be gone in a wink of an eye anyway. I've decided that I'm going to be practicing real hard so I get used to the new lifestyle in the short time I have right now, insuring that I'm fully prepared when ENB is for real.

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Offspring #4 is all set up with the dorm...she left Saturday. I went and visited yesterday after work, since I had to work Saturday and Sunday when she moved in and Monday we went out to the lake. Nice place. Brand new. She's in a 4 bedroom suite with only one other suite mate. She's lovin it so far. She's even *gasps* cooked for herself. AND cooked for the boys in the next suite. I'm thinking..."Danger, Danger Will Robinson!" dangerous precedent being set...they're gonna have her cook all the time, but no! They cooked for her last night. So thats cool.

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I saw an article in the News today about a couple in Niagara Falls who left their children in their car. In the sun. With the windows rolled up. On an 85 degree day. What the hell is wrong with these people???? The mother says they were just there for a few minutes. The neighbors said it was over 30 minutes. The oldest kid said it was for 'a long time'. The cops had to convice the oldest kid to unlock the doors so they could get them out. The cops said they were soaking wet from sweat. I cant believe they're not dead.

Now..here's the kicker....the kids were ages 9, 2 and 6 weeks. Ok..thats not the kicker, this is... The Sperm Donor was 21 and the Incubator was 22. Lets do math people....the Incubator was all of 13 when she first reproduced....THIRTEEN!!!

I have no words for this.
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Well, slap me in the ass and paint the barn red. Not 3 minutes after posting this, what do I get?? Offspring walking thru the door. I guess practice is just going to have to start slow. ;-)

How I Spent My "Last Day" of Summer. A Photo Essay

We were invited out to the Sis-&-Bro-in-laws for the day. Couldnt have been a nicer day. I forgot to bring my camera dang it so these are all off my phone.


From my perch on my chair..this was the view to my right..

This picture down below here is my current desktop.

From my perch in my chair, this was my view dead ahead....

Alternate view dead ahead...

From my perch in my chair, my view to the left.....much later in the day.