Halloween and Fun Sized Candy

As I was opening the bags of candy in preparation for the trick or treaters tonight I noticed the phrase, "fun sized" on the small bars of candy. I don't know about you, but fun sized to me is not something that can be placed in my mouth all at once. To me fun sized would be a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup about the size of a large dinner plate. One that if I ate it in one sitting, I would go into sugar shock for about three weeks. What is so fun about something that just whets your appetite? The candy companies came up with this size years ago to appease the healthier lifestyle movement and have continued to convince us this is the best bag and size of candy to buy. Now my beautiful wife has me on weight watchers and it has been working. I have lost about 30 pounds and am continuing to loose, but tonight I will have to use all of my will power to avoid eating as much chocolate as I pass out. Each time I hand some little kid a hand full of "fun" sized candy, I will be dreaming of eating a Hersey Bar the size of my couch.

Christmas decorations before Halloween!

I know I am old fashioned in many ways. My wife, could give you numerous examples of this, but I believe that any store that displays Christmas items before Thanksgiving, let alone, Halloween, should have it's doors shuttered in penalty. I remember the tradition of having stores ready for,"Black Friday". This is when we all started to get into the holiday spirit. Now as the Halloween candy is pared back the Christmas decorations start to appear. When the stores did it the day after Thanksgiving, it seemed somewhat magical. Now by the time Christmas comes I am ready to dig Bing Crosby's body up and beat the hell out of him. Why, I am tired of hearing so many renditions of "White Christmas". Please could we have a little bit of sanity! Wait, what's this. The Sunday, Target ads. They have Christmas lights on sale! I'm out of here. Better get there before they run out! 

Epcot Wine and Food Festival!

It is really hard to have a better day then what I experienced this past Sunday. I had the company of my favorite person in the world, my wife Pat, the skies over Central Florida were the most brilliant shade of blue, the sun was bright and we were heading to Epcot for one of our favorite events at Disney World, the Wine and Food Festival. Eating and drinking, something I am very good at.

We started our trek at the Norway bakery, where we waited until 11:00 for the doors to open. We have been here before and you do not have to wait for the W&FF, since this is always open. They serve Viking coffee. Now I am not sure if any real Vikings drink this, but it really doesn't matter to me. They have Bailey's Irish Cream,  Coffee Liqueur and, of course, coffee, I think. All I know is this is the perfect start to the day. Pat got her coffee with Baileys. We each got berry creme horns, a pretzel pastry and an almond pastry. Delicious.

As we left the bakery, I spotted the Norwegian food booth and got a plate of their specialty. Some pickled herring, smoked salmon, shrimp in a cream, dill sauce and a beer. Man this day is going great.

We then proceeded to Germany, where we each purchased a sausage in a pretzel roll. We dipped this in the brown mustard provided and quickly devoured the entree. I only had water at this time. Remember to pace yourself when drinking.

We strolled past several booths, enjoying the sights and smells of the delicious foods. Our destination was France. Here we wanted Champagne, for Pat and a Grand Marni er Slushy for me. Fantastic.

Our last stop for this day was Ireland. Pat ate a lobster and scallop Shepard's pie and I got the cheese plate. Man this was great. Again just water. Sorry but I am not a food critic, I just know what I like, so the rich commentary from critics will have to wait for the newspaper.

We were leaving to go to our daughter, Nicole's house, for a birthday party. Our youngest grandson, Elijah, turned one on Sunday, and Grammy and PopPop, wanted to be there and help celebrate. It was the end to a perfect day.

Beautiful weather. Great food. Great Drinks. Most importantly great company. It all adds up to a wonderful day and one we will repeat, soon. The food Festival ends November 19th and I know there is plenty of other foods and drinks to try this year. Oh and if you are looking for me at the Festival, you may want to start at the bakery in Norway. The Viking coffee is always hot and delicious. See you there!

Sunday Mornings!!

I didn't have to work today, and it was great. What is better then waking up at 7:30, it is pouring rain and the Sunday paper is waiting. That is what I did this morning. Add to that, a nice, hot cup of coffee, my favorite chair and lastly the Sunday news shows. MSNBC has a new show titled, "Up, with Chris Hayes," that started a few weeks ago. I usually record it and watch it on Monday, but this week I got to watch it live. If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and catch it. It is very much worth it. I promise you will learn something and get drawn into the conversation at the same time.

The rain let up long enough for me to get out and do my walk. It was a beautiful fall morning, despite the rain. I always enjoy my walk and really need to get more consistent at going out for one. For an hour, plus I get lost in my thoughts, boy that is scary, and just relax.

The Steelers were on at 12:30 and televised here in Orlando, so I got to enjoy watching them, blast the Titans. Watching Steeler football is one of the things I miss, since moving to Florida. Once a Steeler fan always a Steeler fan.

This afternoon Pat and I caught one of our favorite movies, "A Few Good Men," with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Is there a better, more intense scene in movies, then the courtroom scene between these two actors, when Nicholson shouts, "You can't handle the truth!" I have seen this movie maybe twenty times and still feel the emotions.

This really was, very close to a perfect day.

My Family How I Became Me!

Like many people I some times wonder what has made me the person I am today, and like most people, who we are comes directly from our family. Over the next several weeks I will be writing about my family. I am talking about the people I was surrounded by at birth and through the early years. My parents, grandparents, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. This is not some expose, but more of a stroll down memory lane. I remember the laughter and fun times that is really what shaped my personality. In some cases, my family may try and deny the influence they had on me, but too bad, this is my blog and this is my way of looking back. This should be fun and I invite my family to give their twists on my memory and I invite others to just remember the people that influenced them.  I am going to do this starting with the oldest, which means my Grandparents.

I am starting with my Grandpa Lambert. Ed Lambert. Grandpa Lambert was tall and thin, yet his rough and weathered features belied his wit and humor. When I think of him I remember his laugh. It was the type that made you smile and laugh with him. He always had a "chaw" of tobacco or his pipe in his mouth. The empty Maxwell House Coffee can was beside his chair, to spit the tobacco juice into. So many times he would offer me a chew and my Grandmother would admonish him, which would lead to a gale of laughter from Grandpa. He always seemed old, probably younger then I am now. A side note here. If he seemed old, why don't I seem old now? He was constantly in motion. Most mornings he would start the day with ham or bacon and eggs. He ate all of the things that would clog my arteries now, but he lived well into his nineties. He worked hard which explains how he survived the food he ate.   I guess one of the things I got from him is the ability to laugh hard and laugh frequently. There  is so much  more that he gave me and I will talk more about him as I introduce more of my family in future blogs. One thing is certain, I think of him often and have missed him for years.

I Never Want To Look At Paint Chips Again!

Pat and I are going to paint our house, hopefully in the next five years. Any married man will tell you this can be one of the most frustrating procedures of all time. It is bad enough when we paint the inside rooms. At current count, my beautiful wife  had me paint the kitchen, three times in a month. The entry was done twice. The den twice. The dining room twice. The spare bathroom twice. The spare bedroom twice. I lucked out on the Master bedroom and bath and the family room. The laundry room is still white. However if you add all the rooms I have painted 10 rooms a grand total of 17 times, meaning I could have painted a house twice as big. Now I am not being critical of Pat. Those little squares of paint we get at the paint stores are very hard to visualise until they are on the walls. The problem is that for each room we looked at approximately eighty five thousand little paint swatches. Half the time I could not tell the difference between them. Also we have to take into account the Community of Hunters Creek, which I love, has community standards and painting the outside of your home is under this guideline. Just when we thought we had the color, the paint was not approved. Back to the drawing board. I can honestly say that I could have picked the color, months ago. It may not have been the right color, but I would have made a choice. I believe that tonight we have a winner. I just hope that by daybreak, Pat will not have a new revelation, in color selection, and God knows I hope that the color is the right one, because if it isn't, guess who will be out repainting it, the month after the painters leave.

Star Trek Captain!

I grew up watching William Shattner and Star Trek, so when I bought my new phone the other day, I also got a blue tooth devise. I love this thing. I do not even have to touch my phone to answer it, I can give it commands to call someone or answer the phone. Once I understand it better I will even be able to retrieve my text messages by voice command. You have to love technology, Jayden, Pat and I all survived, Jayden's first week back to school. He likes his new teacher. One problem though. As the week progressed it became harder to get him moving in the morning. I remember when I was a kid. My parents would call for me to get up. I jumped straight out of bed, made it, took my bath or shower, ate breakfast and was ready at least one hour before time to go to school. At least that is how I remember it happening. One of the advantages of writing your own blog, you can change the facts about your childhood to what ever  you want. One thing that was true when I was a kid. The first day of school you would wear one of your best outfits. You would then start out to school with either your lunch money or your packed lunch. Today we have to take all of the school supplies, for the kids, to school several days before, so they are not overloaded their first day back. We keep cutting money for the schools and cannot understand why they struggle to educate our children. Last item for today. I cannot believe how much technology has changed the way we do things. I remember when cell phone first came out I said, "Who in Gods name needs a phone with them all of the time." Now as I get in the car I check to see if I have mine with me. I was one of those people that thought nobody needed a computer in their homes and now I am not sure how we ever survived without them. We have TVs in every room. Dvrs are the normal. We use them to record shows and watch them when we can, and we even get to skip the commercials. I don't know  about you, but I can't wait to see the next new item that will make our lives easier or better. Maybe a devise that will get kids to clean up their rooms without being asked. Now I am just being ridiculous.