I've noticed if I wait a few days between posting, my readership and number of visits escalates. Perhaps, Col. Parker (Elvis's manager) was correct. "Always leave them wanting more."
Not only have my visits gone up I have had two new people join and I do not know who they are? I will hunt them down. I would also like to acknowledge Coach Welch as a reader. I added him to the list after the blog about the golf outing and he has read two posts and did not drop off. Good luck in AZ Coach.
I have been off line here for some personal reasons, but have some good fodder to share so let's get going.
You might know him as Joe Schmoe, or average Joe, but Joe Six Pack is supposed tobe the average guy or gal in the US. He might have a family have an average income in a medianly priced home and he might be inclined to care about a price of a six pack of beer.
I have bad news. Yesterday (Sunday) I went shopping for dinner and needed 4 cans of beer for a drunken chicken recipe I was making. (Yes Patti, I will share it soon in a blog near you.) I looked up and down the beer aisle at a very well inventories grocery store and discovered there were no six packs of canned beer.
There were 12 and 20s and six packs of high end bottled beer, but no six packs of canned beer. I think this may be the crux of economic crisis in the United States. Joe can't find a 4.00 or less six pack of good old American Made beer. He is so despondent.
Personally it is a strategy by the federal government to make Joe more dependent on the government. He can't get his six pack so he begins to question his worth. He can't decide whether he should have health care, so the government takes care of it. He can't decide if a mortgage is too much for him, so the government takes care of it. He can't decide what information to share on Facebook so the government will do that for him. He can't decide if drinking 5 cokes a day is a good thing so the government will protect him from himself. The list goes on and on. But I digress.
We were planning a little get together to celebrate my birthday which is a way off, but I have chosen to dessert (or would it be desert) my family on my Birthday to pay homage to my buddy in the UK, Douglas. He is celebrating his 65th on July 21st, a day after my birthday.
I will be enjoying the company of Virgin Air Flight attendants on my B Day, so we had a few folk over to enjoy drunken chicken. Here are some of our dinner guests all dressed and ready to go.
After a nice dinner, I was forced to sit in the middle of the room while people bestowed gifts at my feet. Here I am.
Don't I look like a poster child for "I Beat Anorexia!". (Yes Douglas stole it from a joke you sent over.) I am holding a set of drumsticks that have been personalized with "Brian Cronin" in a font reminiscent of the 68 Comeback Special Marquee below.
Footnote: If you meet Elvis at a Burger King near you do not say "Comeback Special". It really pissed him off as he did not know he had gone away to actually comeback.
Anyway I got a nice set of personalized drum sticks. Guess I will have to buy drums now. I also scored a nice gift certificate to Roger Dunn Golf Shops. Guess I'll have to take up golf now. (Some of you have seen me play and yes it would seem like I just took up the game. Ben is going, "Don't waste the money he never plays more than nine holes and he picks up on almost all nine.)
Needless to say it was a nice evening which ended in a giant cake that looked like an Oreo cookie. Thanks Jack and Kristin.
Monday, I was busy trying to get things wrapped up for said trip to the UK. I did find time to have my first workout at Gold's Gym. I did about 12 minutes using 16 ounce gloves of the heavy bag, then I got to try out the new AED unit they had on the wall. Not really, but I swear I did almost have a stroke because I am so out of shape.
We had a personal emergency in the family and we ended up at Mission Hospital. We live in an interesting time when a person (not in our family) is being rushed to an emergency CAT Scan and they are texting as they are being pushed down the hall.
Our emergency wrapped up about Tuesday afternoon. That left very little time today to get ready to head off to The United Kingdom. Tonight, as we were preparing dinner (Don't worry Patti it was chicken salad sandwhiches.), there was a knock on our door and it was George.
Now I know none of you know who George, but he is our Western Exterminator Man. I did not know George until last week. So George shows up tonight and very eloquently asks if he could provide his service tomorrow morning. We agreed and Devin suggested I show him where we saw some ants over the weekend.
When I was finished George says to me, "Mr. Cronin, do you play golf?". I look around for the cameras, because I know I am being punked, right? I say, "Yes George, I occasionally play golf." He then begins to tell me about a problem he has been having lately due to a nasty slice in his swing.
Now I know I am being punked, but George is so polite and engaging (Yes Dennis and Jerene, approachable too.), that I find myself explain that most slices have their root in the grip. So I demonstrate how to adjust the grip ever so slightly to hopefully help George.
George then proceeds to tell me he is a lefty and could I show him how to adjust the grip from a south paw perspective. Carefully scanning the neighborhood for the small mini-vans or trucks with a film crew, I attempt to demonstrate how a left would adjust. George was ever so appreciative and thanked me immensely. I told George, "You get what you pay for.", and walked into the house and quickly peeked behind the front window to see if I was being punked.
Jack has been enjoying his visits to the Gym and says his workouts are great. He likes the trainer and the program he is on. Devin stopped in the gym today and learned more about my trainer in 7 minutes than I did in one hour on Monday. Devin is approachable and engaging. In my defense, it is important to remember that in order to be able to talk, one must be breathing. I was struggling with the breathing thing on Monday. The conversation would have gone something like this:
So ahahah Eric ahahahaha ahahahaha where ahahahahah did ahahahahaha you ahahahahaha go ahahahahahaha to ahahahahaha school ahahahaha. And Eric would reply, "Two, come on Mr. Cronin you can do another one." You get the picture.
Eric is in great shape (dah! He works in a gym) and is studying to be a nurse. I found that interesting and just pictured him standing next to a bed and using his bare hands to form fit a bed pan. He does like boxing and worked with me on the heavy bag and bouted with me with gloves. He said they were thinking about starting a boxing class ands wanted to know if I was interested. (Yes I was thinking I was being punked again.) I said, "Ya sure." And hoped their was a super DEAD weight class.
Anyway, I musty wrap up as I have a few things to take care of before I leave. I will have my iPad with me, but not sure if I will be using it to blog, so you might miss me. And then again. . . . .
Since 7/11/2012
