The things in my head go ’round and ’round

What the heck is it with Budweiser and lime? I am not getting it. Same with Miller and lime.

People are not to drink beer with fruit in it. Limes are for gin and tonic. Not beer.

If you have to put fruit in your beer, that pretty much means that the beer sucks. Big time.

If you need to do something to your beer to make more people drink it. Improve the taste.

Don’t put lime in your beer. Especially since it won’t be a real lime, it will be lime flavoring. Chemicals on top of chemicals. Blech.

Namaste.

It is that time of year again. Back to school. And if you read any of the blogs written by Mom’s, it is a time of bittersweet. Stay at home Mom’s get a breather from being on call 24/7 with their kids.

That is the sweet part. The bitter part is that they no longer are on call. Someone else has their charges for a few hours a day.

And the Mom’s get to spend some childless time thinking about their kids.

The curse of being a parent. When they are with you, all you think about is your kids. When they aren’t with you, all you think about is your kids.

Blah.

As a parent you have 6 years to teach them how to be independent, and play nice. And after that you have X amount of years to teach them how to do all of that and not need you any longer.

Well, not need you quite so much.

Love them kids. Just can’t eat a whole one.

Namaste.

It is the “Dog Days” of summer around here. Not much going on. We have been back from vacation for 3 weeks, and I am ready to go again.

The Princess has invited pretty much every tweenaged girl in a 3 county area to stay over night at our house. When did sleeping over at someone’s house become such a big deal? I just don’t remember that as a kid. Being that I lived in a fairly small town in a rural area, we slept in our backyards a lot. But The Princess invites everyone to our house. I think that she even invited the Brothers Jonas to sleep over, but that might just be a bit of an exaggeration. You know how I can be.

The youngest son will be coming to visit next week for a few days prior to his starting his Freshman year at U of M. University of Michigan, that is. Proud of the boy. He did it all on his own. Registered, applied for his loans, the whole shot. And now he is looking to move out on his own. That ought to go over good with his Mother.

So now I have 2 of my 3 older children continuing their educations. My eldest daughter has been attending college while working full-time out in Arizona for the past couple of years. She is amazing. A living embodiment of what you set your mind to do, you can do. She is one of those people who, once their mind is made up, cannot be stopped. I love that about her.

Now I just have to keep working on the eldest son to get him into a college. Right now he is enjoying the life out in California working for a video game company. His life long dream. Getting paid to play video games. And how can you tell a kid that no, that isn’t the way to go? You can’t. You just hope that he grows out of it in a couple of years. I mean, how cool would it have been for me to be able to test new guitars after they were made when I was his age? Come on…

The Pa RenFaire started up this week end in Mount Hope, Pennsylvania. I will be going the weekend of October 24th. That is when one of my new found favorite Celtic Drumming Bands, Albannach, will be performing. I saw them a couple of years ago when the eldest daughter was visiting, and fell in love with them. And how cool is this? I get to go to the Pa RenFaire in October, and in March of 2009, if I can work this all out with the three older kids, I can go out to Arizona and attend their RenFaire as I did this last spring. That is very cool.

Now I have something to look forward to over the cold months that are coming. That along with making beer. When the evenings cool off enough, the beer gets to cooking. I need to finalize my recipes for this upcoming brewing season. For some reason, the “Dog Days” are starting to sound a bit busier than what I thought they were…

So what have you been doing?

Namaste.

I read people who make quotes like this:

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)

Namaste

Go away on vacation, and you immediately stop reading what is going on here. I told you that I would be away until I found a reliable WiFi on Oak Island.

Sheesh.

Anyway, here is what has been going on:

There are a couple of things that you should just not do to make your life that much easier. Well, actually, there are a lot of things that you just shouldn’t do, but lets talk about a couple of simple things that, on a first glance, look like they are no big deal.

You should never talk smack to a Police Officer who just pulled you over. And you should definitely not talk smack to a Police Officer when you are being stopped at a Sobriety Check Point.

Not that I have done either. I am more of the “Yes, Sir.”, “No, Sir.” Variety when it comes to talking to an Officer. Always hoping for the no ticket situation. But a couple of weeks ago I did get the opportunity to participate in a Sobriety Check Point and did see 2 cars in front of me, and one car in back pulled to the side so that they could do the “Just How Drunk Are You” two-step.

I have been calling things the “Whatever” two-step lately. That and the “Dosey-Do”. I don’t know why, but I have and it is making The Princess crazy. With her being 13 now, EVERYTHING that I do makes her crazy. Makes life simple for me. I don’t have to worry about what I do, because no matter what I do it is wrong.

Cool.

Next item. Don’t plan on a major house renovations prior to leaving on vacation. This would seem like a no brainer, but my brain wasn’t thinking when I got talked into gutting our kitchen, and putting new flooring in our living room while we are out of town.

See? On a first read through that looks like a good idea. We will be out of the way of the contractors, they will get the work done, and when we come home it will be wonderful.

But I still had to work, and that left MLW to do a lot of the prep work. Like cleaning everything out of the cupboards. Because the cupboards are being ripped out and replaced. And cleaning out everything from under the sink. Because the sink is being ripped out and replaced. And cleaning out the refrigerator, because the frig and the stove need to be moved so that the new floor can be put down. And the old carpet had to be ripped up, I did that, along with all of the tack track and the staples.

And those are just a few of the issues that should help you decide NOT TO EVER, EVER, EVER decide to have someone work in your house while you are on vacation.

So, I lost my train of thought. Hmmmm.

The ocean is calling, the water is wild. There was a tropical storm that came through last night and the waves are really high today. Gotta go.

Namaste.