J.R. on w/ McGraw

I'm so psyched they are going to replay McGraw w/ J.R. today. I think I was in Chicago when it origianlly aired. www.ktrs.com
If you haven't read the Tender Bar please do.
Got this from J.R.'s website. Mouring the loss of J.R. on the afternoon radio. Sure hope whatever gig he gets after the KTRS thing has an online link.

Sign of getting old.

I was reading www.stltoday.com and saw a story about a veteran police officer getting suspendded. The problem is that I know him and he's my age. He's a veteran?
He treatened a taser to a suspects groin to get his name...is that a reason to kick a guy off his job? I think not.

Hard Life in the 80's

Stolen from www.joedahlquist.blogspot.com

-----------------------------------------------------------When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tediousdiatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; whatwith walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. uphillBOTH ways .. through year 'round blizzards. Carrying their youngersiblings on their backs ... to their one-room schoolhouse, where theymaintained a Straight-A average, despite their full- time,after-school job at the local textile mill .... where they worked for35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving todeath!And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no wayin hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids abouthow hard I had it and how easy they've got it!But now that...I'm nearing the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around andnotice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, comparedto my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it butyou kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when Iwas a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to knowsomething, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves,in the card catalog!!There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter .. with a Pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street andput it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had tohitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or youhad to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'dusually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!And talk of about hardship? You couldn't just download porn! You hadto steal it from your brother or bribe some homeless dude to buy you acopy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! Those were your options!We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phoneand somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And wedidn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, youhad no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss,your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn'tknow!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games withhigh-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like"Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass! Yourguy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screenforever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harderand harder and fast er and faster until you died! ... Just like LIFE!When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadiumseating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or someold broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, youwere just screwed!

Baby Animals!

Too cute! LOVE the babbies.

I have been blog hopping all over the place. It's like 7 degrees, blah blah Kevin Bacon game. I go to a Yay Yay and she's linked to someone who's linked to someone else and all of a sudden I make a circle.

A couple from NY and Florida got engaged. I've found that a few different places, good for them.

3:04...tick, tock, tick, tock..

Billy Joel is Touring but not here!

He hasn't announced any Midwest dates though. Hopefully he'll come to St Louis again, we're good to him. He has something like 12 concerts in Madison Square Garden. That WOULD be cool but I'd have to deal w/ east coast people, NO. Then I was thinking maybe going to Vegas to see him, that seems a little nuts though since you have to add a couple hundred dollars to fly there. Then I was thinking of Arizona but we're going there anyway to see J's dad and go to the Grand Canyon. He BETTER come here, or at least Chicago or KC.

I saw the interview on the Today Show w/ Matt Lauer. I HAVE to go. It's how Jeremy was with Neil Diamond. I get goofy w/ Billy Joel music. From Piano Man, Big Shot, Italian Rest, Capitan Jack, lullaby..I like 'em all.

We were on electronic overload last night. I was loading the iPod, Jeremy was playing w/ the PSP and Drew was waving his light saber in front of the TV. I got some Grease, Carly Simon and Harry Connick on the iPod but need to get the Billy and Elton John. Oh..also have me some Constantine and Bo Bice. I have my McGraw podcasts too!!

So the iPod has made me more music conscience. I have everything from Wayne Newton to No Doubt, Price to Ann Margaret, Olivia Newton John to Toto. I can't wait to get the rest of my CD's together, plus I'd love to burn a disc w/ MP sing-a-long music. I'd have: Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee, Waterloo, Big Shot, All For Leyla, Recipe for Makin Love, You're So Vain, Summer Nights; that's a start I guess. Once we get the internet back up I'm going to buy some songs too. Just singles though, I don't need entire albums.

Boy today sure is dragging. I was trying to contemplate a great way to log the calls we get everyday, something that will help both sales and marketing. But it has to be easy. I guess I'll come up w/ a draft and have marketing create something I can put in a binder. Sure hope expanding the department is a good idea. I hate giving up control.

Damn!

I have hardly any real visitors to my blog...but there are a couple, I know that some people do come and check out the old blog occasionally. I don't know about friends/family cause they hardly ever comment but my cyber friends Kim, Easy, Linda and occasionally other cyber friends like the Yay Yay's come visit and leave word. I have to tell you it feels good to have comments on your blog, a bit validating.

I am not as good as others about reading blogs. I tend to see if there are new posts at Yay Yay's, Kim's then the ones I just read...Pink, Michael Yon etc. Point is I've "meat" Easy through Kim's blog and we got to emailing and posting notes on each other's blog. He's a home town guy, we have a love of the Cardinals and St Louis. Very cyber normal non "personal" safe deal. We talk about weather, baseball and St Louis. I went to check out and see how he was doing and he's gone!!! Deleted. Seems that his wife didn't know he was blogging and didn't appreciate it. I on the other hand have shown Jeremy my blog. Of course he was very pissed I had the picture of him and Suzie at 6 Flags...but anyway. I just wanted to curse that I was losing one of my audience and part of my reading routine.
www.gloryroad.blog-city.com Hope he comes back.

Fish Stories

Last night we went to Prill and Charlie's for day 6 of parties. The pleasant surprise was that Vance and his girlfriend Kelly were there. Vance is very nice, he's around my age, I suppose technically he is my step-brother-in-law. Vance works in the water. That is just way too cool. I didn't catch the whole story but it seems he created an "out take" DVD for Peggy (Woody's wife) showing what he does for a living. In short he films underwater footage around the world that is used on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic etc or for major films too. I'm sure there is much more involved. Point being is that he took clips from the South Pacific, Galapogos Islands, Hawaii and Florida and put it into a 30 minute or so DVD w/ a music background. Most showed cool footages of shark, alligator, cute turtles etc.
The MOST ultimate cool footage was of them swimming off the coast of Hawaii w/ a beautiful/ugly Humpback Whale. Seeing a person next to this graceful huge whale was unreal. I was SPELLBOUND watching as the whale flipped Vance in the water with her fin. TOO cool.

Of course all this underwater watching makes me share my one and only salt water scuba diving trip. There was the great, good, cool and FREAKY times. Not to bore but in a nutshell:
First up I kneel on Fire Coral. That SUCKS and hurts really bad.
While till reeling in the pain of the fire coral I look out into the blue and see a spotted eagle ray swimming in toward the reef. WOW. I'll NEVER, EVER forget that image.
They teach you how to flip backward off the side of the boat. Most people can do this with ease, being me I have NO clue how I'm going to pull it off. BUT I make it with ease.
While at around 60ft I notice 4 or 5 shark below me and really don't have a problem with it. It is actually a cool thing to remember and share.
The absolute worse was the night dive. My flashlight broke. I can still feel my hand on Dave's T Shirt, totally death grip. I felt a brush on my shoulder and there was a tarpon to my left. This was the black, the unknown. It totally ultimatly freaked me out. I can honestly say I PRAY that I will never have to go in the Ocean at night again. I realized I'm VERY afraid of the dark water...yet I'm OK in the daytime with sharks. Not normal, but I guess I'm not.

The large ass fish in this blog is the tarpon. These fish feed at night near the shore, hense seeing him on a night dive. These fish can top over 200lbs, they are about the size of a person. I would think that would explain the freak out fear.

That's so funny how vivid that trip is, it was at least 11 or 12 years ago. I really want to do that again!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

Well aside from Dad in the ER, last minute shopping and a hectic few days I'm still alive and sane.

In the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas, here is a story from the Post.
(You go St Stanislaus, you are probably more happy having a divorce from the Church..wonder what religion you officially are now???)

Defiant church celebrates Mass on Christmas Eve By Tim Townsend ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Saturday, Dec. 24 2005 At least 2,000 people packed into St. Stanislaus Kostka church and its Polish Heritage Center to be a part of the Rev. Marek Bozek's first celebration of Mass as pastor of the church.Before Mass, the aisles of the church in St. Louis were so crowded that Bozek and the alter servers had to be driven around to the front of the church to make their entrance.The church is at 1413 North 20th Street, northwest of downtown St. Louis.Carrying a statute of the baby Jesus, Bozek entered the church and immediately received a standing ovation. The choir sang "Silent Night" as Bozek walked down the church's center aisle to the applause.The priest placed the statue of Christ in the manger at the front of the church, knelt and prayed next photos of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.He asked the congregation to leave their tensions and problems behind and concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas. Then he asked the congregation to offer the Mass to the Archdiocese of St. Louis and pray for St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke.Outside the church, two St. Louis city fire pumper trucks held a giant American flag between their ladders, a nod to the Rev. Jeremiah Jakle, the Irish priest whom St. Stanislaus parishioners credit with saving that church from ruins in middle of the 20th Century. He was chaplain of the fire department.Just inside front doors of the church, Joseph Iwasyszyn, a parishioner, handed out bright red "St. Stanislaus Lives" buttons, replacing the "Save St. Stanislaus" buttons seen around the city for the last two years.The new bottoms "are to show people we're still going and kicking," he said. "We're still hanging around."On Saturday night, Bozek again ignored the instructions and warnings of his Missouri superiors - Bishop John J. Leibrecht of the diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, and St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke - and celebrated Mass for the hundreds crowded into every corner the ornate church just northwest of downtown.When Bozek told Leibrecht of his decision to become the pastor at St. Stanislaus in early December, the bishop suspended him. Two weeks later , Burke declared the six lay St. Stanislaus board members excommunicated along with Bozek for "the ecclesiastical crime of schism," defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as "the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."Since the news of the excommunications became public ten days ago debate about which side is right has occupied Catholic St. Louis, including more than 400 entries on three different Post-Dispatch blog-streams on the topic. The dispute even merited a front-page story in last Tuesday's Wall Street Journal.The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus wrote about the St. Stanislaus excommunications last week on the Web site for "First Things," the conservative Catholic journal he edits."What is most importantly at stake . . . is the very definition of what it means to be Catholic," he wrote, then explained the structure of Roman Catholicism. "the Church is guilty as charged: the Church is - always has been and always will be - hierarchical, which many think is a very bad thing to be. The upshot is that St. Stanislaus Kostka and its hired priest are in schism. Protestations to the contrary, it is not a Catholic parish."Indeed, in his Dec. 16 newspaper column, Burke said he "will be obliged to suppress" St. Stanislaus, meaning it will no longer be a parish of the St. Louis archdiocese or a Roman Catholic church. As of last week, an archdiocese spokesman said he was not aware if Burke had yet to sign a decree that would make the suppression official.The dispute between Burke and St. Stanislaus stems from a late 19th-century arrangement that gave the parish board control of the church property. Since he arrived in St. Louis in January 2004, Burke has demanded that the church conform to the same legal structure as other parishes, where the parish priest and bishop oversee finances.Several of Burke's predecessors, including Archbishop Justin Rigali - now cardinal archbishop of Philadelphia - had attempted and failed to bring St. Stanislaus back into line with the rest of St. Louis' Catholic churches.Burke has said that by altering the parish bylaws, the board members of St. Stanislaus illegally removed his authority and the parish priests from the board.

What are the Germans thinking??

OK, I'm freaking here! I clearly remember in 1985 watching the Navy diver being tossed dead onto the runway. Killed in attempts to save lives. A true hero in a rediculous hijacking. We tried to get him to the US a couple years later to try, convict and more than likely execute him. BUT no, the Germans insisted that they try him since they don't have the death penalty. So then what happens. Well 19 years of imprisonment he's let go. When asked about where he went the Germans stated that they didn't have his itenorary. For crying out loud. I understand you don't want to kill him but it's 2005 at least put a micro chip in his scalp or something to track this psycho. 20 years later he'll be pleased to meet the lovely groups in Iraq, Syraia, France, hell the US of A where he can plan MORE terrorist activities w/ an even better upgrade of materials. Lets see there is chemical warfare..you don't need liquid explosives anymore there are tons of more high tech ways to do it.
I don't know, it just freaked me out when I saw that. Catch a hijacker, murderer with liquid explosives and then let him out 19 years later with NO idea where he is or where he's heading.
Thanks Germany.

5 More Shopping Days

...or something like that. I guess I need to get started.

Well Friday sucked, I felt SO sick, I ended up going home at 4pm. I got home in time to watch the news which annouced the firing of everyone that I love on the radio, including Jeremy's step-sister and McGraw. The Cardinals are NOT making many friends.

Friday night Jeremy and I went to Bayers. We got ourselves a tree. It's a Scotch Pine about 7' tall. It is the most beautiful tree!! It was less than $30 bucks too, not bad. We had it strapped on top of the Jeep and drove home. We realized that this was my first live tree EVER and Jeremy's first since he lived with mom and dad when he was a kid. Jeremy strung lights and we got out some ornaments. It was very nice. I watched shows and sat on the couch and blew my nose all night.

Saturday I got up feeling worse, we went and got Drew, played a while then went to see King Kong. That was the most miserable 3 hours of my life. I had to get up to go to the bathroom twice, that's what that darn cold medicine does, plus I was drinking water. I was achey and I know I had a fever. Jeremy went on and on about how it's going to get an Oscar. Doubt it. Maybe cinemetograpy. I really would have rather been home in bed. So I get home from the movie, take more drugs and do get into bed.

Sunday morning I felt better, Drew had I had a marathon Pokemon game day! We are redoing the first game and we did SO much better, we had been stuck trying to figure out how to make the subway train move..ends up there was a dropped key..we found it this time.

So the Colts lost yesterday. I guess it was about time.

Morgan Freeman on Black History Month

"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" to air Sunday (7 p.m. EST). "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."
Black History Month has roots in historian Carter G. Woodson's Negro History Week, which he designated in 1926 as the second week in February to mark the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Woodson said he hoped the week could one day be eliminated — when black history would become fundamental to American history.
Freeman notes there is no "white history month," and says the only way to get rid of racism is to "stop talking about it."
The actor says he believes the labels "black" and "white" are an obstacle to beating racism.
"I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man," Freeman says.
******************
This reminds me of the day when I was a junior in High School. The black group, not sure what they were officially called..had a mass. In this mass they were going to sign the, and I kid you not, Black National Anthem. Well needless to say Missy and I got up and walked out. We have the National Anthem of our country. For blacks, whites, yellows, greens and even purples, it does discriminate. I never understood why we didn't have a white history month or an Indian month or Asian studies.

Oh well, the world goes on.

Great Anniversary!

Well the bar is set high, the consert was awesome!! Nothing beats singing Sweet Caroline WITH Neil Diamond and thousands of other people. Our seats were great too!


In other news, being at the consert I missed the finale of Survivior but watched the beginning of the reunion show when I got home, cause of course I had to see who won. I was very dissapointed Danni won, I didn't want Steph to win either..I wanted Rafe.

It's freeking cold!

It was 7 degrees as I drove to work this morning. That's cold.
Well the snow stopped at around 3pm. The drive home wasn't too bad, I left around 5:30, I stayed away from the side roads and took the interstates. 270 was smooth going, better than when there isn't crappy weather. By the time I got to 44 though I could tell what area of town got more snow. There were still no real lanes in the highway. That was a pain, all in all though it just took 45 minutes.

I wasn't surprised about the Midway crash. Everytime I fly in there I imagine that I'm going to crash. I'm also surprised only one person was killed.

Stupid people here left puppies outside. They died, now the people are in TROUBLE!

Fish pond froze over, I thought J was buying a pond hearter. They all survived last year w/out one. Personally it doesn't matter to me. Jeremy is a little attached though.

Yesterday was not that crazy at work, steady not nuts. This morning already people are making me WORK. It's been a half hour trying to post this.

New guy started today. He kinda looks like Ernie form the Munsters. I've very afraid.

Jim Edmonds is STILL a Cardinal

I asked McGraw to confirm what I heard on the show and he said:
"I reminded Randy that he broke the Jim Edmonds trade on my show years ago. As far as I know, Jim Edmonds is still a Cardinal. Thanks for listening. McGraw"

OH...9:18 It's snowing like a big dog! Guess the weather forcasters were right!

WTF?

OK, first off I scan the internet and watch the news. I see NOTHING on a Jim Edmonds trade. I've emailed the source (McGraw) for clarification. I must have had crap in my ears.

7:55am, no snow. Am I surprised, I guess not. KC has a foot. STL, nada, zip. It's like the additional Aqua Net used in the 80's has put a dome over the city and not allowed snow to fall.

Stadium is gone. Pile of rocks now.

Got the hair done last night. Touch up on regrowth and shaped up. That's stylist talk there. So I don't get home til 8:17, hungry. Jeremy gets a Stoufer meal for the microwave. Ends up it is NOT the rice and chicken thing but a pasta chicken and brocolli deal. I don't do the green veggie. I did want to sing "chopping brocolli"

So I get home late and I've missed the first half hour of Triangle. I can NOT stay up to watch the 10-12 deal. I think Jeremy recorded it for me, at least I hope so.

Supposed to go to church today, hmmmm I don't know how I'm going to swing that unless I get a duplicating machine which allows me to go to church and work late at the same time.

I had ALL these things I wanted to blog while I was driving yesterday, can't remember a one of them.

Gonna Snow Big Time

Big time? Maybe, doubtful though. It's supposed to start late tonight and finish up at noon tomorrow.

A little refection into the day when we had real snow.

I give you the Blizzard of '82, now that was SNOW!

The Stadium is ALMOST gone. Here is the last remaining pieces.

Jim Edmonds Traded

You heard it hear first. Of course I didn't hear the entire interview so I don't know where he is going or who we got.

I'm not to sad to see him go. I did totally enjoy his golden glover performance in the outfield though and I'll never forget game 6 against Houston when he nailed one out of the park, saving for a game 7 in the 2004 World Series.

Things to do while eating my soup at work.

Your IQ Is 95

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Below Average Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Finding God in the Park

Finding God in the Park

Abe was fiercely independent even at the age of 85, but after a mild stroke his son insisted that he move in with him. Abe missed going to the park near his old apartment and one Saturday he set out to find it. When he became disoriented, he asked a young boy where the park was. The boy, named Timmy, said that he`d like to take Abe there, but that he didn`t have time because he was out looking for God. Timmy said he needed to talk to him about why his parents were getting a divorce.

"Maybe God is in the park," said the old man. "I`d like to talk to him too about why he has made me useless." And so they set off together to find God.

At the park Timmy began to cry about the divorce and Abe lovingly held his face in both hands and looked him straight in the eyes. "Timmy, I don`t know why bad things happen, but I know it`s not because of you. I know you`re a good boy and your parents love you and you`ll be OK."

"Are you sure?"

"I`m sure."

Timmy gave Abe a big hug and said, "I`m so glad I met you. Thanks. I think I can go now."

From across the street Timmy`s mother had seen them hug so she approached him and in a worried voice said, "Who was that old man?"

"I think he`s God," Timmy said.

"Did he say that?" the mother demanded.

"No, but when he touched me and told me I`m going to be OK, I really felt better. I think only God can do that."

When Abe got home, his son in a scolding voice asked, "Where were you?"

"I was in the park with God," Abe said.

"Really? What makes you think you were with God?"

"Because he sent me a boy who needed me, and when the boy hugged me I felt God telling me I wasn`t useless."

Stan the Man

All Cardinal fans have at one time in their life muttered the words, "I'll meet you at Stan Musial". Yesterday Stan the Man was uprooted from his home of the last 40 years.

In other news traffic was gridlock and highways shut down as St Louis has it's first snow flurries. No, I'm not kidding. On the East side they shut down a highway due to a tractor trailor accident and there were numerous accidents on on/off ramps. On my way to work I see a helicopter hovering and I'm going 8 mph, I figure MAJOR accident. No, there was a burst of snow showers making it impossible to drive unless your wipers were on. Whew. Glad I made it through that one.

Oprah/Dave tonight! Woo hoo!

Oh, and Bette Midler is 60 today.