Another week done and I am enjoying a quiet Saturday morning. We picked up a new sideboard and will be assembling that later today. I am hoping that will solve most of our kitchen storage issues. I need an actual home for some of my state-of-the-art kitchen gadgets, like the bread maker, snackmaster, crockpot, and kitchenaid mixer. This thing is 5' wide, has four doors and three drawers. The drawer space will be really nice for us, and all the drawers that we have are super-crowded.

I've been listening to a lot of "Talking Heads" music lately. They are the right kind of weird for me. They have an album called "More Songs About Buildings and Food." I like both of those things, and usually when I eat food I am in a building. It really hits home for me.

I've been reading a lot of books lately, currently I am reading "Mort Ziff is Not Dead" by Cary Fagan. It's about a boy that is tormented by his older brothers that finally catches a break when he guesses the right number of candies in a jar and wins $1000. The story takes place in the 1960s, so that is a heck of a lot of money for a kid. He decides to take his family on a real vacation to Miami beach to get away from the Canadian winter. The dad jokes that he would like to leave his brothers at home. It has been good so far, and they should be landing in Miami in the next chapter. We have vacationed twice in Miami, and it was the first place that I ever saw the ocean.

We are, for the most part, feeling better. I went back to work on Monday but really didn't start to improve much untl Tuesday. Alli didn't start feeling much better at all until Wednesday. I've got a little bit of a lingering cough that only affects me when I laugh. Unfortunately I like to laugh.

I had some extra time off this week. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday the store was closed Thursday through the weekend. So I have been working on our den (where I have my computer set up). I added some outlets behind the TV and behind the telephone table I also added two phone jacks by my chair-- one of the telephone and a second line so I can get online and not tie up our main line. I guess I have no excuse but to keep this page up to date!

I had to do some drywall work for the project too because the wall behind the end table has a foam insulation behind the drywall which kept me from being able to just pull the wires through. Instead, I had a open up a "chase" by carefully cutting out a strip of the drywall and then re-installing it after the fact. I did put insulation back in, of course. Alli should be putting the second coat of touch-up paint on in about 15 minutes.

We didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving becaue we didn't want to spread around what we were sick with. We made our own little Thanksgiving meal yesterday with turkey, croissants, potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, gravy and pie. Alli used some purple potatoes and when mashed they looked like some sort of blueberry goo. They tasted fine, but I couldn't bring myself to eat many of them. Kadence opened the can of cranberries, so helpful.

It has been a long week. Kadence brought home a nasty bug last weekend and we are all suffering for it. Alli missed almost the entire week or work and I missed most of Wednesday-Friday. We have canceled our Thanksgiving with family next week so they don't get sick from any remaining germs. Not to mention how tired we all still are and we don't need to add the burden of hosting a family meal. Instead, we are going to have a small bird, some pie, and cranberry sauce. Probably some stuffing too.

I did get a little bit done this week. While I was laying on my beanbag chair feeling miserable, I organized my bookshelf. I also messed with my clock (the one I reviewed a couple weeks ago) and have managed to fix the hands so that they do not catch on each other. It has been keeping accurated time for nearly two days now.

I am only doing a small update to the page this week-- just what you are reading now and a new poem in the poetry section. Also, earlier this week I uploaded an activity book from Showbiz Pizza, so make sure that you check that out. I was originally planning no updates for next week, but with the cancelation of our Thanksgiving I will be able to provide an update for all my fans out there.

We are officially ready for winter! The furnance is running great, the sprinkler system is drained, the grass is mowed short, and the garage has been rearranged so our vehicles can go in. Next thing you know if will be Thanksgiving, then Chanukah, and then the goyiche new year. I am doing a test run tonight, making a whole chicken, some biscuits, gravy, and mashed potatoes for supper. I think I will have serve some cottage cheese with it too. If we had a Kentucky Fried Chicken in town I wouldn't have to go to the trouble. Do they do turkey?

We went to see Kadence's play last night, a musical with a bunch of Abba songs in it. Most of the kids couldn't sing, but our Kadence and her friend Gary sang like angels. They played some sort of domestics, I think, we were never really introduced to their characters-- they were just there to sing and background act. In one scene they were pretending to take money, and Kadence was the best at it. Years of practice I guess.

My knee is still healing, but I am starting to do some rehab on it because the healing has seemed to just about start going backwards. It was tougher for me to get up and down the stairs this week than it was for me last week. It feels like the little muscles across the front of my knee that took most of the fall are still inflamed and are wanting to weaken. So I am using some weird shock therapy device on it and it makes the muscles moved. If I try manipulating the muscle while its being shocked, it really hurts. I think the muscle or tendons or whatever are tangled up in their selves because of the swelling. Kind of like my elbow gets. The doctor calls that tendonitis. Oh well, I am sure the electricity will eventually recharge me!

Good news everyone, I got the new part for the furnance and it is back to purring like a fiery kitten. It only too about three minutes to change out the limit switch-- just two screws and two wires. Everything has been fuctioning well since Tuesday. Good thing since we have already has snow this year!

We went out shopping at the five and dime earlier today. I got some new slippers. They are really comfortable and really brown. I got an ice tea at McDonald's too. We are going to clean the garage tomorrow so we can start parking the vehicles inside now that its getting cold out. I think I will be making my final mow of the year some time this week.

I started reading a new book called "Everything You Want to Know About Your Favorite Wrestling Superstars." It has Hulk Hogan, the Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, Kamala, Wendy Ritcher, and Cyndi Lauper on the cover. Cyndi is on there because of the rock and wrestling connection, she is in the same image as Wendy. I have read about Hogan, Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant, and the Von Erichs so far. I wonder if they have and Andre the Gnat in the midget ranks?!? Anyway, I will probably be doing a future review on it. I really love wrestling, I watch NWA, WWF, WCCW, and AWA. Can you imagine if we ever got a Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair match!

Alli ordered some really good taco pizza last night. Crazy right, taco stuff on a pizza? They even sent taco sauce packets with it. I read in the paper once that a guy named Joe Whitey at Happy Joe's right here in Iowa invented it. I think it was in Davenport. Davenport, Iowa, not a Davenport sofa. I am planning to made one of my world-famous curries tonight. My curries are so good, they made Ghandi end his hunger strile. OK, that's it for this week. Oh, except I put up another page of jokes. Check out the Kevin Bacon one, that is a Grizz original!

It's Halloween week, I just uploaded a spooky poem on that part of the website. It's almost november, so don't forget to sign up for the DOS and Don'ts newsletter before it's release on the 1st. Link here. I have got some new software I am using to edit my webpage and for general writing, you can read about that in the Computers section of this site. Clinton, Kadence and I went to the wrestling matches in town last night. They had a costumem battle royale. I believe a good time was has by all.

I am going to make my famous chilli tonight, Kadence is very excited about it. Cohen said he got time off and will be able to come up for Chanukah in Dccember. Jewels probably won't make it back since she lives in Colorado and is wedged between two mountains. I am going to get the sprinkler system drain today and it has gotten very cold out suddently. Its pretty easy though, the hardest part is running the air compressor hose across the house and down to the basement. It's just hard to admit to myself that it's that time of the year already.

We woke up to a cold house yesterday. The furnance stopped working and it got down to 61 in here. Don't worry, it's nothing major. It has a resetable high-limit switch and, well, it doesn't reset anymore. I have it bypassed currently and am only running it when I can keep an eye on it until I get the new part. The good news is, it's warm in here again!

I had a bit of a tumble in the garage on Monday and hurt my knee, but I didn't break. Still hurts like a mother. Alli got me a monster truck coloring book and socks to match! I colored a Halloween picture last night-- there were so many pumpkins! We just watched an episode of Sanford and Son, that theme song is funk-aye!

With my knee being so sore, I won't be doing much this weekend. Maybe I can sweet talk Alli into making waffles tomorrow morning. That would be delicious!

I almost forgot, Joe, myself and some other nuts are starting a newsletter about all kinds of groovy stuff. The website for that is http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org

We went to Menards yesterday and picked up soe wood paneling for down in the basement. We have an unfinished wall and I really don't want to do drywall. Three panels should go up pretty smoothly, but I am having a fairly relaxing day so I don't think I will be tackling that task until the work week, some day after work I will get it done. We went to the resale store while we were out and had lunch at Hardees.

This morning I slept in and am now watching some WWF on the console TV. Jake the Snake just released his boa constricter Damien on his unconcious oppoentent after the match. That doesn't look like fun to me-- even Indiana Jones doesn't like snakes! I made some adjustments to the accordian door and I think it works a lot better now. It looks good too, even Joe says so.

We are going to have leftover hamburger stew for lunch and Alli is making some sort of chicken dish for supper. She needs to make a phone call, so I am going to log off now!

I installed an accordian door on my closet today. It looks pretty good, white with a faux woodgrain pattern. I think they are some sort of polymer. In bigger news, I need to drain the sprinkler system in about a month, maybe sooner if we get a cold snap. I am going to need to get the garage cleaned back up soon too for winter parking and for the winter golf league. I still need to do inspections on the two furnaces in the house and the plow as well. I am not going to look at the hot water heater (other than leak and wiring inspections) because it is well beyond its prize and I would be more likely to cause damage than prevent it. Alli is making spagheti for supper, I wonder is oregano is her secret ingredient (like on Andy)!

Can you believe all the weird phones that have come out since '83 when we all got away from Ma Bell? I have seen all kinds of cartoon characters made into uncomfortable looking phones, including Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Pac-man and even Gumby (damn-it)! I do like the Garfield one though. He is sleeping soundly, as fat cats do, until the phone rings and BAM his eyes open! Our youngest daughter has one that is a hamburger-- it opens like a clam shell and she listens to one bun and speaks into the other. I would think a hotdog would be more ergonomic. She saw a high-heel shoe one the other day and kind of wants that now. Maybe for Chanukah? Even Sports Illustrated is using a football phone as a come-on now!