10 Things From 4 Months-Part 3

It's been a couple of weeks since I put my current blog series on hold. During that time a couple more major events that I want to post about have happened. But first I have to finish what I started with this series. So here it goes. 

Just so you know this is going to be a rather lengthy post because there are a lot of details and pictures to share. 

The Pearson's Come To Town: On Saturday, August 6, my sister, Shari and her family came to "The Grove" for their vacation. Their visits have become a family tradition that everyone in both the Pearsons and my gang here in Kentucky look forward to. 

Their visit was both busy and fun as it usually is. We had the chance to celebrate the birthdays of 3 family members: my sister-in-law, Theresa; daughter-in-law, Heather; and my brother-in-law, Bob. 

There was a lot of time spent around our kitchen table playing games. Including a murder mystery game called "Mysterum". 

The Pearsons introduced us to the game that was responsible for more laughs than anything else we played, "Spot It"

It's a very simple game that involves being quick at matching figures on round playing cards. 

The game was the vehicle that let to me adding the phrase "Cheese, Bob, Cheese!!" to our family lexicon. I highly recommend getting one of the many versions of the game for some memorable family fun. 

On Thursday of their visit we enjoyed a unique event as a family. We went to  "Precious Views", a 3D ultrasound service in Bowling Green, to share in my daughter-in-law's latest ultrasound session. Seeing James & Brandi's baby boy before he's born was a special experience. 

While we were there I was fortunate enough to capture one of my favorite moment of the year. My granddaughter, Aria, spending some time "just hanging" with her Uncle Michael.

The visit ended on Saturday August 13 with our traditional "good-bye" breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant and one last group picture. 

My Solo Shot Around "The World": During the week of my birthday in September, I got the chance to cross something off my personal bucket list. I got to take a solo trip to Walt Disney World. 

After looking at a forecast that called for a very low crowd level in the Magic Kingdom on my birthday, decided that I it would be a good chance for me to go alone for the first time. I found a real good travel package on Hotwire.com that included airfare, hotel and car rental. I had to take advantage of the opportunity.  

I flew to Orlando on September 8th. It was my first time flying since May 2005. I had forgotten what a unique experience flying anywhere is. The airport is a world all it's own. Overall, I really enjoyed it. 

That same night, I attended "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party"

. 
Going around the Magic Kingdom collecting candy, riding rides and watching the shows was a bit more exhausting than I had anticipated (I had prepared for it by walking on a regular basis for 6 weeks ahead of time) but a lot of fun. 

One of the highlights of the night was the castle show featuring the Sanderson sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus. 

I found a good place to watch the "Boo To You" parade in the seating area of the Sleepy Hollow quick service snack shop. Staking out my place early allowed me to get a good close up look at the grave diggers...

 ...and my friend, Goofy. 

The next morning I was back to spend my 56th birthday at the Magic Kingdom; a dream come true. 

Here are some of the highlights of the day. 

My first ride on the Great Goofini's Barnstormer roller coaster. 

I rode the Dumbo ride in it's new location for the first time. 

Other first time experiences were: breakfast at the Be Our Guest restaurant, riding the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, riding Aladdin's Flying Carpets, going on the Jungle Cruise, and seeing the Country Bears Jamboree show. 

I got my picture taken with my favorite Disney character.

I enjoyed a snack (soft pretzel & cheese) in front of the castle while watching the new Mickey's Fantasy Faire show. 

I experienced watching the fireworks from an interesting perspective near the Mad Hatter's Tea Party ride. I also got a cool picture of the castle with the lights of the train station in the distance through the tunnel.  

My final highlight of night was watching the Main Street Electrical Parade for the last time. A month after my visit it left WDW for Disneyland. 

I spent a third day in Orlando but not at a Disney Park. I drove to the International Drive area and rode on the Orlando Eye Ferris wheel. 

I was a little disappointed in the experience. The ride was only one slow 20 minute revolution and there wasn't really all that much to see in the Orlando landscape. But I'm glad I did it at least once. 

Next, I went to Disney Springs. I did some shopping at  the Lego and the World of Disney stores.

I dropped by and got my picture taken with one of my all time favorite giant Lego displays: a dragon named "Brickley". 

Coincidentally, one of my wife's favorite Disney character artists, Jasmine Beckett-Griffith was signing her new artwork at the Co-Op in Disney Springs that day. 

I stood in line for 90 minutes to meet her and get my wife's new pictures signed. 

After a quick stop at the Goofy's Candy Company for some Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly beans, I went to the Disney Design-A-Tee store. I made my 3rd customized Goofy shirt to mark the occasion of my first solo trip. 

At that point, I was worn out from the fast pace, activity, and lack of sleep over the last 3 days. So my time at Disney came to an end. 

The next morning at 7AM, I flew out of Orlando International Airport and my very special birthday trip was over.  

It was my 3rd trip to Orlando in 10 months. I really had a good time but the "solo" aspect of it was, at times rather lonely. 

I think from now on, I will be going to Disney with at least one other person or more. If, however I do get the opportunity to go back solo, I will do my best to meet up with some of my friends from the online Disney community. Because I've learned that making memories at Disney World is something that is done best with others.  

There you have the #3 & #2 thing on my list of 10 events from the 4 months I was away from this blog. 

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. I would appreciate it. 

I know it's taken a long time to get here but  
I am now up to the #1 event. It's not just something that has made just the late summer/early fall special. It's a life changing event, not just for me but for my entire family. 

Come back next time to and I will share with you the #1 event of not just the past 4 months but of the year. 

Holidays Interuptus

Thanks for coming back to my blog. As you know, I am in the middle of a 4-part series trying to get you caught up on what the end of summer/early fall was like for me. 

The last 2 posts are on their way. However I do have to let you know that there will be a bit of a delay.  

As I write this the 5 day weekend we had over the Thanksgiving holiday is coming to an end. 

Those days consisted of: preparing the house and some of the food on Wednesday, eating food and spending time with family on Thanksgiving; helping my sister-in-law bake fruit cakes and then clearing out our living room in preparation for the tree and decorations on Friday; our granddaughter came and helped us decorate our Christmas tree then I worked on my Christmas Lego display on Saturday; Sunday saw another visit from our granddaughter and Paula & I went to our son's house to try his 2nd ever deep fried turkey for dinner. 

So as you can see it was a very busy weekend. As the first full week of the holiday season begins, I've got a whole slate full of things I have to get done. 

We have some family members coming in for a visit next weekend and we are hosting two of them here at our house. I have to move some things around for that to happen. 

In addition, I want the house to be decorated so we can have at least some type of Christmas celebration with them. 

So what I'm saying is that it's not very likely that I'll be blogging this week. But when things settle down I will come back and finish my current series and share the details of our family's visit. 

I appreciate your loyalty to my blog. Keep checking back. I'll be here again soon. 

10 Things From 4 Months-Part 2

Thanks for coming back. I'm sharing some of the most important factors in my life over the last 4 months. This is the part 2 of 4. I encourage you to keep reading because, this list ends with something very exciting; one of the greatest of blessings of my life. 

For now let's get back to my list...

Making Rooms: Back in May, the room that is my wife's office had been painted (a calming gold), decorated and furnished. By July the only thing left to do was set up of the closet to store her wardrobe. 

Armed with the area's dimensions, she did extensive online research to find the bins and clothing racks she wanted. Combined they would give her the space for her clothes she's been wanting for a long time.  

Over the 4th of July weekend we went to Lowe's and bought the pre-fab units. Although most of them are assembled and installed there is still some work to do to complete the closet. But at least we have made progress. 

Although I haven't really started redecorating the room that will eventually become my den/recording studio, over the summer I did make some major changes to that end.

I decided to sell my rolltop desk in preparation for getting a desk with enough room to allow me access to all my recording equipment. 

Once the desk was gone, I rearranged the entire room. This was no small task because I had to find a new place for Angel's crate, the stand up freezer, the small fridge, Aria's Lego table and the two 6 ft storage cabinets. 

I created a work area using a square card table and a 4ft high 6ft long table in the corner just inside the door on the left.  This area serves as my office/ music spot, and holds my new desktop computer, a printer, along with my ukulele and music books. 

All of this is temporary because early in 2017, I plan on buying the desk that will allow me to permanently set up my recording area. That way I can create as much content as I want. 

While it seems like we are accomplishing our home improvements at a snail's pace at least we're getting there. Our goal for 2017 is to be sleeping in our new bedroom which is currently a storage room. I'm going to do my best to see that it happens. 

 A Visit To St. Louis: September was a busy month for me. There were 3 major events. The last one I'll mention first.

Back in May our friends, Mark & Patty Quigley, moved to St. Louis. It wasn't until the last weekend of September that Paula and I got the chance to go visit with them. 

We had planned on staying a couple of days but because of family commitment we only stayed one. 

We made the 5 hour drive on Friday night and arrived at our friend's house close to midnight. 

The next day we enjoyed some breakfast at their house and some time just hanging out.

Here's a "groupie" of all of us.    

 In the afternoon our hosts drove us around to show us their new surroundings. After lunch at a local restaurant we went into downtown St. Louis. There we drove past the Budwiser brewery, Bush Stadium and the famous Gateway Arch. 

We spent the rest of the day back at the Quigley's town house. Mark and I went to a popular local barbeque place to pick up our dinner to "eat in."

After an evening of playing cards, swapping stories, listening to a special playlist on my Ipod and laughing a lot we called it a night. 

The next morning, after a slight delay because of a nearly flat tire on the rear driver's side rear of my Kia, we were on our way back home. 

I was thrilled by the fact that heading out of town we once again crossed over the mighty Mississippi River. Although it was the second time on this trip. It was the first time in the daylight. Crossing the Mississippi was a travel milestone for both of us.     

It was great to hang out with the Quigley's again, even if it was just for a brief time. We look forward to going back when we are able to spend a little longer and enjoy being with two of our bestest friends. 

Reunion With Friends: The expression "The cherry on the sundae" is very applicable to this next thing. 

The week after my birthday, a couple of my long time friends, Gene and Larry, came to Kentucky on vacation. They were nice enough to spend some time with me here in my little corner of the world. 

Gene was a good friend of my dad's and my church youth leader when I was a teenager. But most importantly after all these years, he's still a great friend. 

Larry, was the coach of my church softball team in the 1980s. He's as much if not, more of a baseball fan than I am and also a good friend. 

After making their way from Easton, PA to Pittsburgh, then on to Cincinnati, on Tuesday September 15, they drove to my house. They hung out with me for the evening just talking about the old days and some of the stuff that was going on now. 

Although I hadn't seen them in probably more than 15 years it felt like we hadn't missed a beat in our friendship. We spent the evening just catching up. I was thrilled to have Paula meet them. 

Over the next couple of days we went to both the National Corvette Museum...

...and visited Nashville including a stop at the Grand Ole Opry house for a tour. 

We ate lunch at one of my favorite barbeque places on Broadway next to the Rymon Auditorium. 

Both in their late 60's Gene and Larry are relatively low tech. Texting with their phones is about as "advanced" as they get. It was a lot of fun to entertain them with some of their favorite music from my Ipod on our trek up and down I-65. Larry couldn't believe that I had more than 10,000 songs on such a small device. 

A week or so after their visit I sent them a few CDs I recorded with some of the songs we had enjoyed together. They both sent me a thank you card with very kind words.   

I can't begin to tell you what a great time I had just being with these guys again. Showing them around my "world" was a lot of fun. But the best times of their visit was sharing memories, stories, and music again. 

The couple of days they were here always will be one of my fondest memories from 2016 and that's saying something. 
Thanks Gene & Larry.  

Those are the 2nd set of memories in my 10 things from the last 4 months. 

Up next, in part 3 of 4, a couple of terrific vacations that are not only highlights of the summer but of the year. See you next post. 

10 Things From 4 Months-Part 1

Hello everyone. Thanks for coming back to my blog. It has been over 4 months since I have posted. If you have been a faithful reader at any time over the last 8 years you know that I have stepped away from writing for extended periods many times. Of course, I've always returned. This is the latest comeback in that pattern. 

Since it's been over 130 days this time. Unintentionally, my absence paralleled the political conventions and and results of the most controversial presidential election in the history of this great nation of ours. 

Everyone knows what happened but for most citizens life did not revolve around "locker room talk" and "email espionage". This includes me.

So if I had been posting during the campaign of chaos what would I have blogged about? Let me fill in the gap for you with a mashup of two of my favorite styles: A series of posts and a top 10 list.  

I'm going to share with you 10 things that have happened in my life over the last 4 months or so. They aren't in any particular order just things I want to share with you.   

Sold Stuff Online:  
In an effort to make a little money for an upcoming trip and get some room in our storage area, throughout July and August, I sold some of my Lego collection, mostly small Star Wars sets, and ventriloquist materials and puppets. 
I did this through group pages on Facebook. The most significant thing I sold was my ventriloquist figure, Ruben. 

Although I was a bit torn about doing this, he was my most marketable "vent" item. 

I had him as part of my puppet collection for 7 years and I have always felt that I never really utilized his potential. That says more about me than anything. 

It was not an easy decision to sell him but I have to be honest with myself.  When I looked at my future plans in regards to "vent" I knew it was time to let him go. 

However, I must say my daughter-in-law, Heather, was very pleased with my decision. He creeped her out. I am kinda sorry that he won't be around to "entertain" her anymore. 

Prior to my midsummer effort to raise funds, I had sold an item or two online. But this time was most profitable, by far. 

A Walking Program: After I pulled the trigger on a special birthday present (more on that later) I knew that I had to get myself in better physical shape or I wouldn't enjoy it. 
I walked through Smiths Grove as often as I could. The hot summer heat and humidity limited the window for walking to early morning or near sundown.
During my walks I enjoyed listening to audio books about the friendship between Andy Griffith and Don Knotts both during and after their days in Mayberry... 

...and details and people involved with the making of and cultural effects of the TV series, Seinfeld. 

Blogger's Note: If you are a fan of either of these shows, I would highly recommend these books in whatever format you choose. They are very interesting. 

I built myself up over the course of 6 weeks to the point where I could walk 2 miles at a time. For me that's an accomplishment and was enough to prepare me for the trip as I had planned.  

In the 2 months since I've come back from my trip, I have, once again, fallen off in regard to walking, but I plan on getting back to it very soon. 


Legos, Of Course: Although I have slowed down a bit over the last couple of months, I still really enjoy building Lego kits. It's mostly a way of connecting with my granddaughter. Every time she comes to visit she anxiously looks forward to seeing what Papa has made for her to play with. Here are some pics of what I have put together for her. 

My favorite build from over the summer was one of the things I like in the Star Wars universe: an AT-AT.

I put this one on display back in my room on the same bookshelf with my VW van. 

Also, over the summer, I bought some new bricks and accessories that will help to improve my Christmas Lego display. I have also gotten this year's Christmas set, a train.

I am looking forward to seeing how these additions enhance our living room during this holiday season. 

Doggie Surgery: If you are a dog owner with a pet who has had to have surgery you'll understand this next event. 

On October 21, our dog, Angel, had surgery to remove the fatty tumors that have been building up in her lower abdomen over the last 10 years or so. They had become a real problem for her in regard to getting around, walking, and going up and down our deck steps. 

I knew that she would be in pain and would need some extra care during her 2 week recovery time. 
What I didn't know was that following her surgery she would have several drainage tubes protruding from her incision. These had to be left exposed and open so she could heal from the inside out. This meant that she "drained" anywhere she went. For two weeks we were constantly cleaning up the floor after her. We tried putting doggie diapers on her but they didn't work.  

In addition, she had to wear a plastic collar that kept her from licking her incision. She really didn't like it at all. It limited her ability to navigate through doorways and getting in and out of her crate. I had to remove her crate and make her a bed she would have no trouble getting to. 

To gain access to her food and water the collar had to be removed. This required my help as well.

She was also on 3 different medications 3 times a day, which she had to be tricked into swallowing.
 Because of the surgery she is now getting around a lot better than she was. It was a difficult couple of weeks but over all it was worth it.  

There you have a few of the 10 things from the past 4 months I want to share with you.

In the next couple of posts I will feature details of improvements and changes in design of our house and share some memories made during a couple of visits from some special people.

Thanks for reading "Part 1". I'll let you know when the next post is published.     

Puppets With Papa

Back in April 2006, my son, Michael, and I went to Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville to catch a rising star. Jeff Dunham was gaining popularity due to a popular Comedy Central special. Although he had not yet jettisoned into the world wide stardom he has now; the club was packed.   

It was on that night that I decided to seriously consider doing something I hadn't done in over 30 years: be a ventriloquist. 

I dabbled in ventriloquism when I was a teenager and was really fascinated by it. But then I discovered that there was a segment of the population not very interested in a 15 year old guy publicly pretending to hold a conversation with an overgrown stuffed animal. That would be teenage girls. Thus my interest in becoming the next Edgar Bergen or Paul Winchell ended almost before it got started.   


Then in July 2006, I attended the Vent Haven ventriloquist convention in Fort Mitchell, KY. I actually met Jeff Duham

along with some other very talented entertainers. After spending time with them, I was hooked once again on being a "vent."

The day after I got home from the convention I performed my first ventriloquist skit in church as part of the weekly Children's Sermon. 

And that's how I started ventrilquism again after 40 years. 

For the next decade or so I would grow my galaxy of puppet stars and ventriloquist props. I would use them to teach and entertain the kids at my church and in my community.  

Six years later, April 2012, I became a grandfather. Among the many things I looked forward to with my grand daughter was introducing her to my many puppet characters.

Ever since my Aria was a toddler, I've been trying to entertain her with my puppets. I even bought her puppets of her own. Including a turtle and a rabbit. She just never seemed to be interested.

She has loved and carried around many stuffed animal friends but puppets just never seemed to connect with her. 

But within the last month or so that has changed and it came about in a most unusual way. 

Back in May, I collected the first series of Lego's Disney mini-figures. 

While Aria has always enjoyed playing with the mini-figures I collect this Disney series was especially compelling for her. Among her favorites were these two. 

 She is familiar with these characters from both Disney's 1953 classic, Peter Pan and one of her favorite Disney kids shows, Jake & The Neverland Pirates. 

While playing with her in her imaginary world made up of Lego houses, Scooby Doo & Disney mini-figures, and Play Doh, I started talking about the crocodile from the film. I knew I had a crocodile among my puppet menagerie, so I got it out to include it in our play. 

I gave the puppet a voice and the Aria's friend "Tick Tock Crock" was born. 

My grand daughter and Tick-Tock quickly became the best of friends. She wanted him around nearly every second she was playing. Of course her Papa had to be around too. 

Realizing that Aria had changed her feelings about puppets (at least the crock) I figured it was about time to reintroduce her to my turtle friend, Cecil. And now the four of us are play time buddies. 

 Recently, I have been selling off some of my ventriloquist puppets and props with the idea of really cutting back on or giving up ventriloquism all together.

But now that I have made a connection with Aria this way, I may have to rethink that. I'll just have to see how things work out. 

Anyway, having a voice in my grand daughter's new pretend friendships makes me very happy. 

As Tick Tock Crock or Cecil, she lets me into her world in a way she never has before. I can't tell you how thrilled that makes me. 

I'm sure she's in on the "joke" of pretending too. Although she enjoys having fun the puppets; I'd like to think it's cause it includes her Papa. 

If nothing else, I'm counting on our little land of make believe creating memories that last a lifetime, her lifetime. 
































Papa & Puppets
Yankees & Baseball

RH Factors Digest Vol. 1

Blogger's Note: It's been a while since I've written a post that's a collection of different unrelated subjects. I plan on doing more of them in the future so I'm starting a series called "RH Factors Digest."  

A Birthday Dinner
Friday, July 1, was my wife's birthday.
I think it's rather appropriate that someone who likes symmetry and balance as much as I do has a spouse whose birthday is exactly in the middle of the year. 

I'm usually pretty good at making her birthday feel special; but this year, I wasn't. With all we had to deal with over the last 6 weeks I just hadn't made any preparations at all. 

On Friday morning, I decided, rather quickly, that I was going to make up for my lack of efforts try to put together something that would make her day memorable. 

I invited Michael, Heather, James, Brandi, Aria and Theresa to our house for dinner. I cooked my special steaks and fresh locally grown corn on the cob on the grill. 

Brandi brought a delicious birthday cake from Sweet Temptations bakery. Aria insisted that we sing "Happy Birthday" to her Nana. So we sang and Aria and Nana blew out the candle together. 

It was a nice quite evening at home with the family. 

Game Show Reboots

For nearly all of my life I've been a fan of the TV game show. 

This summer, the ABC network, has brought back a few of the classics from the 1970s, a great decade for game shows. 

Celebrity Family Feud with Steve Harvey as the host Steve Harvey is not a reboot. It's still making first run episodes for syndication and is very popular on the Game Show Network. So I'm excluding it from my comments. 

The 3 reboots are: To Tell The Truth, $100,000 pyramid, and Match Game. 
In my opinion, ABC got it right with 2 of the 3.

The "To Tell The Truth" game is played the same but the set has been changed. That makes those of us who remember the "original" set a little disconnected. Here's the 2016 set. 

It has a bit of a "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" vibe to it. The contestants are supposed to have a secret but their seats leave them wide open.

The celebrity panel are all too relaxed as well. The set is just not congruent with the "investigative" spirit of the game. The host isn't right either. More on that later. 
Here's what the set from the late 70's/early 80's looked like.  

On a side note, I built my own interpretation of the "To Tell The Truth" set from back when I was a kid. It was one of the first things I built when I first got into Lego back in 2012. It has a retro kind of look to it and I like it.

Now back to the new game shows. 

Both Match Game and Pyramid have sets that recreate those from back in the 70's. The games themselves are still pretty much the same too. They hold up well even after all this time which explains the longevity of their popularity. That's why if you are a game show fan like I am you'll enjoy them.

As far as hosts are concerned, Pyramid's Michael Strahan is the best. He is likable and understands that the game is the star of the show, not him. 

Match Game's Alec Baldwin, and To Tell The Truth's Anthony Anderson try a bit to much to make themselves the center of attention. Everyone knows it's the game that keeps viewers coming back. Just ask some of the all time best game show hosts: Wink Martindale, Bill Cullen, Tom Kennedy, Alex Trebeck and Pat Sajak to name a few.  

You can see the 2016 editions of these classic game shows Sunday nights on ABC or through "On Demand".  

 Netflix Binges
Over this 4th of July weekend Paula and I binged on two different series on Netflix. 

We finished up the 8th season of the Showtime series, Dexter. Although, for me, the show "jumped the shark" at the end of season 6, I still had to watch the last couple to see how it all turned out. 

Like most long running series, the finale really wasn't all that great and a little disappointing. But at least now I know how it ended. 

With Dexter finished and a little more than half of our 3 day weekend left, we had to find a new show to watch. There's a Netflix original series that I'd been reading and hearing a lot about called "Bloodline." It stars Kyle Chandler best known for the NBC show Friday Night Lights and Linda Cardellini, who I know from ER. 

There are only 2 seasons available but we decided to give it a try. The series starts out very very slow, but we stuck with it and in episode 6 it started getting interesting. 

We are now in the middle of season 2 and it's a very compelling story line. I recommend it.

As I write this post the 4th of July weekend is coming to an end. Tuesday starts another work week. Happily this one is only 4 days. 

Hope you enjoyed this first edition of RH Factors Digest.