Now why can�t I just win the freakin lottery already so that we can move to Santa Fe and open that bar/bar-b-que joint so that he can really get his cook on? He will of course run the bar-b-que joint; his wife and I will run the bar. She will be in charge of interior design, I am to be in charge of the live entertainment and day-to-day operations.

Yesterday was a rather nice day, made even nicer by the fact that our family get-together was sans children.

I know, I am a horrible person and I am going to hell when I die. Easter, after all, is one of those holidays that is usually made brighter and more fun by the presence of children, right?

But you know what? I have found that it is extremely enjoyable to just sit around with a large number of adults you really like, drink a couple bottles of wine, have the yummiest holiday meal you can remember having for a long time, watch the Lakers kill the Timberwolves in their first playoff game of the season (literally - kill. I think I saw blood on the court at one point), play four games of Sequence with your adult-aged nieces and nephews and not even care that you only won one of the games, then come home and have one last round of mad-sex with a big and rather cute dude before he leaves you to watch HBO�s Sunday night line-up, your favorite night on television, while you eat left-over ham.

To begin at the beginning�Thursday I worked early and left at about 4:45pm because I had to drive out to my parent�s neck of the woods to get my hair done. That accomplished, I went to visit with my folks for an hour or so. While there, I discovered on their table a whole bunch of information about Alzheimer�s. My dad tells me that he read a list of Alzheimer�s symptoms and he has all of them. Yay. I know he�s been rather depressed for the last year or so about getting old. He refuses to admit it�s happening and still pushes his body to do the things he�s always done and he just�can�t anymore. In fact, his back is really screwed up right now because he just pulled out his entire garden and planted a completely new one. It�s crazy. Anyway, now he�s afraid of getting Alzheimer�s�and considering the fact that we had a whole discussion about my workout routine that night and then he asked me again the following Sunday about that very thing, I am starting to believe him.

One thing is for certain � that man is in dire need of a hearing aide. Now granted, I do talk rather softly, but I practically have to yell for my dad to hear what I am saying. He refuses to even look in to it.

Stupid macho bullshit, all of it. And as his kid I am telling you it is quite upsetting.

I left work at about 3:00 on Friday. On the Friday before a holiday, we usually leave early, which is groovy. It was especially cool because I had to go run a bunch of errands and this left me extra time to do so. While running errands, I decided I would buy John the George Forman Grill as an Easter gift. So I go off to the local Kohls, only to also find the pasta bowl which I have been wanting to buy and which is actually the perfect gift for John, who practically lives on pasta alone. So I purchased both items. I have no control over impulse-buying urges. I figured he could take his pick and I would keep whichever one he didn�t choose.

John actually made decent time driving down to my house on Friday night. He waited to leave Santa Cruz until the bulk of the traffic had died down. Plus, he said that most of the traffic was headed North, opposite his direction.

Saturday morning we went out to breakfast and then drove out to see his kid, Johnny, and sign some student loan paperwork for him.

We had additional plans, mind you. I most definitely had to go to the market to buy the makings of a salad for Easter dinner (I also steamed Asparagus, but that was already purchased and waiting for me at Mommy�s). While at the market, I was going to figure out what to make for our dinner and shop accordingly. We were going to go for our long walk along the beach and up and down the stairs in the evening. I was going to clean my kitchen which seemingly always has a pile of dishes in its sink.

Instead? I fashioned a dinner out of what I already had in my kitchen (this must have been the first time in two years that I actually had sufficient ingredients on hand to make a full meal for two); I did not make it to the market until Sunday morning, on my way to my parent�s house; rather than take a walk on Saturday evening, we sat around my house eating lots of food that is not good for us and watching movies on cable t.v.

Sometimes I really love my life.

John went to spend Easter with his family on Sunday and I went to my folks� house. When we get together, we usually have a pot-luck so that my mom doesn�t have to cook so much for everyone like she used to. So as I said, I brought a salad and Asparagus; Carla brought the �green stuff� (it�s some sort of jell-o thing that I never eat; we just call it �green stuff�) and wine; Amy brought bread and wine; Mom made potatoes and corn and dessert; Arnett made the ham. The best damn ham ever. His hams are always great, but this was seriously the best damn ham I have ever eaten.

I had three � count �em three - servings of ham and potatoes on Sunday. And the potatoes were of an especially fattening variety. I do not remember when I have eaten anywhere near that amount of food for one meal.

Uh�something tells me that whatever weight I have lost since starting my diet a while back was just gained back in one short weekend. But I still have a fridge full of leftover ham and I fully intend to eat every last bite of it�I will just hopefully remember to work it off through exercise�

(We interrupt this broadcast to make note of the fact that I can hear my co-workers Christina and Joe talking about the CD he is currently playing. As it turns out, Christina has no idea who the Birds were. �Mr. Tambourine Man� is playing. She asked who the band is. He told her. She�d never heard of them before. Earlier in the year, I took great pleasure in teasing her for not knowing who Crosby Stills and Nash are. I think I�ll just let this one pass.)

It�s not that I don�t like children, believe me. I have actually always been very close to my nieces and nephews � hell, I practically raised a lot of them and that�s God�s honest truth. But either I am getting old or the kids in my family are getting brattier and more difficult to handle because I often just can�t handle them anymore.

We have four boys under the age of nine. Get them all together and all hell breaks loose.

Sondra and Lou and therefore, by association, Jeremy, decided not to come and told us all last week. No big surprise, actually. Because Sondra has several screws loose, she rarely comes to family get-togethers anymore. Mark was supposed to come with his three boys, but it seems the car I gave him blew up.

I can�t remember if I wrote about it here, but when I bought my new car last year I gave Mark my old one. Actually, I started out by giving it to Linda; then we gave it to Mark a few months later. It�s a 1989 Corolla with pert-near 200,000 miles on it, so we all knew it wouldn�t last long, but he wanted to get whatever use out of it he could. No biggie to me � I wouldn�t have received much for it in the way of a trade in, so we may as well use it until it falls apart. Well, here we are a year later and it evidently �blew up� and will cost $2,000 to fix. Man, I hope he doesn�t bother spending that kind of money on it. He could like, buy a new used car with that amount of money.

So anyway, no kids yesterday. Carla and John brought their two dogs, but that was as close as we got.

The �kids� that were there and I were discussing playing Paintball together some day soon�that is, until I pointed out how unfair it would be to play paintball against a trained military Sergeant (Carla�s John, that is)! So my new idea was for John to be a �fugitive� of sorts and the rest of us can track him down�

Hey anybody want to go to Vegas the weekend of June 20? I�ll be there, celebrating CJ�s birthday, along with several members of my family and his friends. Look for me. So far (aside from CJ and his buddies, of course) it�s just Amy and I and possibly her friend Marina that are going. I have also asked Alissa, Sarah and Katie to come with us, but we�ll see how that goes. Actually, Katie is just turning 21 this week, so I offered to pay her way should she care to go.

Speaking of The Sopranos (I was speaking of it, at the beginning of this entry. Sort of. You just have to follow my mind as you would that little ball in Pong.)�I still love that show; I still think it is one of the best shows on t.v. However, now that HBO is repeating it from season one, I must say that I had forgotten just how fabulous it used to be. This last season really did just pale by comparison.

Same can be said for Buffy�well, except that it is no longer anywhere near one of the best shows on t.v. But it used to be and I am reminded of that every time I watch repeats from the first two or three seasons.

Uh�and I guess that�s it.

Hasta!

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~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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