The Year End Blog 2014 Style

Greetings!

It’s that time, once again, for the year in review. 

All in all 2014 was a good year;

I attended 14 wrestling events including meeting the legendary “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels and attended the Rhode Island Comic Con with John, Jay, Jonny, Jeremy & Juliana.  I was the only non-J named person in our group to attend.

John and I took in a screening of Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol 1 at the Nickelodeon in Portland with an appearance by the man himself Lloyd Kaufman!

Kate and I had a weekend getaway to Cape Code and Rhode Island and had a fantastic day trip that took us through the heart of New Hampshire dipping into Vermont.

For our 1^st Anniversary we dined at Chick-fil-A and went to the historic Boston Opera House for a phenomenal production of The Phantom of the Opera.

We took our moms to Fenway Park for a Mother’s Day excursion, sadly the Sox lost to the Toronto Blue Jays.

WWE launched the WWE Network….so friggin’ awesome!

I took Kate to the Cumberland County Civic Center for her 3^rd Tom Petty Concert, fantastic show!

Emma and Caleb got married.

Kate got Pregnant, it’s a boy!

We moved from Randolph to Gardiner.

Addison – she started Kindergarten, participated in Gardiner Youth Cheering, and is currently take Jazz dance class.  She is very excited to become a big sister.  She has grown up a lot this year but she’s still my little girl.

Canaan – big ole 3^rd grader now and still very active in sports playing baseball in the spring, football in the fall, and basketball in the Winter.  Also this year he joined the Boy Scouts and is a Bear Scout.  Canaan is finally at that good age for sports where they play full games with stricter rules and standards.  Baseball was the Minor League where kids only pitch, 3 outs, 3 strikes, and the score counts!  His team swept the playoffs and won the 2014 Gardiner Cal Ripken Minor League Championship.  Football was 3^rd grade & 4^th grade tackle; he was awesome on defense, not so much on offense.  There was not a championship per say that they played for.  However the participated in the BAYFUL round robin against 3 other teams and won all three of their games.  Basketball is just getting underway, they don’t keep score, but they are much stricter on the rules with active play clocks, and calling all rule violations like double dribble and traveling. 

I’m so very proud of both of the kids!

2014 brought some sadness and loss as well.  My grandfather Bump (Raymond Young) became ill over the summer and rapidly deteriorated passing away in August a month shy of 89 years old.  I will miss Bump and miss playing cribbage with him.  The next month in September saw Grammie Connie leave us.   For a while there it looked as though Grampa Hobart was going to join her, but he seems to be doing much better now.

I had made a few declarations and have been able to keep up with most of them.  The biggest one being I would lose 25 pounds this year.  I’m happy to say with diet, exercise, and the constant support of the family and friends in our Facebook weight loss group I have managed to lose those 25 pounds!

My approach was one of just taking it slow and steady, weighing up every Friday and looking for a 1 pound loss.  I cut my portions, and over all decreased the amount of food I eat.  I feel that for the first time in my life I am approaching weight loss the right way and doing it in a way where the weight is staying off even if I stray for a meal or two.   For the coming year my plan is to continue on the path that I have been on and continue to watch the scale creep down. 

One thing I have really enjoyed this year is the almost weekly movie nights with Jonny watching some of the best and worst horror movies out there, and some of the worst!  The bad titles don’t tend to stick with me, however some of good ones that were new to both of us were; Wolf Cop, As Above So Below, and Tusk has stuck with us and was quite disturbing.  That wasn’t the most disturbing film I watched this year, that was a film called “A Serbian Film” which I won’t even bother to talk about here, if you want to know about it do some research but I wouldn’t bother.

We also caught up on a lot of movies he’d never seen or heard of and vice versa.  Off all the movies in that category though the number 1 flick was me introducing him to “Monster Squad” which is basically his new favorite all time flick!

This year had some great movies in the theaters and I managed to take in a couple with my favorites being; “Captain American: Winter Soldier”, “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Oculus”. 

2015 looks to be an exciting year ahead with some fantastic movies in Avengers & Star Wars sequels, The Boston Pro Wrestling Marathon, and of course the birth of our son!!

Take care!

Later Readers!

The Labbe's 8 days of Christmas

Season's Greetings!

 Christmas is never just a one day event, it just couldn’t be considering the size of most people family’s, mine being no different.

Christmas this year started in Sunday 21^st with Church in the morning and the Mueller/ Higgins celebration in the evening.  My day went like this, get out of work at 7am, sleep for about 90 minutes, go to church, drop the kids at their mothers, go home, sleep about 2.5 hours, go to Higgins’, go home and sleep 90 minutes, get up and go to work…I was tired.  The kids were in the Christmas Pageant this year with Canaan as a Shepherd and Addison playing Jesus’ mom Mary.  The kids did a fantastic job, sang wonderfully, and I’m truly very proud of them.  The Muller/Higgin’s shindig was a lot of fun and featured a great meal.  Mama Mueller got a good sized prime rib and cooked it like a roast, it was fantastic!  Jonny really liked his gift of a Colt Cabana shirt, Kate got some Chocolates, and I got a gift card to Target.  Kate’s cousin Thomas, his fiancé Anna, and her daughter Lera are visting from Russia and it was very nice to see/meet them.

Monday the 22^nd Kate and I had dinner with Jay, Amy, & Erin Willoughby at the Liberal Cup in Hallowell.  It was so nice to see them and have that time with them.  The food was delicious, the tar box cream stout was the best, and it was simply a great time!

Tuesday the 23^rd I ended up having the kids for a few hours in the morning.  We ended up watching some great holiday classics with “A Christmas Story”, “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and “Jetsons Christmas Carol” before their mother picked them up.  That evening Kate and I continued the holiday classic’s marathon with “It’s a Wonderful Life” and later while I was wrapping presents I watched the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol”.  I hadn’t watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” for many years and I must say it’s a darn fine movie from beginning to end.  One of those timeless classics that’s for sure!

Wednesday the 24^th, Christmas Eve was our day to have Christmas with the Kids.  I picked them from their mothers at noonish, Kate got home from work about 1:30 and we commenced with Christmas.  Of course it was over in a blink, but that’s how it is.  The kids really liked what we got them and Addison had everything put away and in its place before you knew it!  Mrs. Mom, Mr. Bob, & AJ came over for a nice visit and to give the kids their gifts.  Mom & Irving got their after mom got out of work and we proceeded to have Christmas with them.  It was a great day and it was nice to have the time with everyone.  I managed to get in a nap before heading into work my shift, where it was quite dead.

Thursday the 25th, Christmas Day, when I got home from work Kate and I exchanged out Christmas stockings were I received a large supply of toiletries that will keep me well supplied in the coming months.  I also got a bad ass Godzilla t-shirt!  We went to Kate's parents for Christmas morning and delicious home made cinnamon rolls!  SO GOOD! Emma & Caleb came over and it was a really nice morning.

We had to go home so Kate could make yeast rolls to take to Aunt Carolynn's that afternoon.  I managed a quick nap.  We got to Aunt Carolynn's for 1pm for a turkey dinner.  Attending was Mrs. Mom, Bob, Andrew, AJ, Emma, Caleb, The Chases, Krista, Seth, Will, and of course Jack & Aunt Carolynn.  The meal was wonderful and we all had a great time.

 

It was absolutely gorgeous outside, and with the sun being out for the first time in days I took the time to head down to the pond and enjoy the crisp fresh air.  I took the time to grab a few photos including this one. 

Saturday December 27th - We traveled to Litchfield to see Gram-Gram and have Christmas with her.  It was really nice to see her and the kids hit the jackpot with some pretty awesome posters for their walls.  Addison got two Frozen and a big Frozen coloring book, Canaan two Star Wars posters and a Star Wars the Clone Wars movie event, The Return of Darth Maul.  Mom and Irving came down and it made for a couple nice photos.  

After Gram-Grams we traveled south towards Topsham for Christmas at Nana's.  The sauce in Nana's meatballs was really, really good this year.  It was nice to see my two Gram-Nana's in the same day. 

Sunday December 28th - Our official last day of Labbe Christmas, and it was spent with Labbe's.  Dad & Linda, and Adam, Nell, & Frederick came over after the kids got back from church.  We had some great food including what I feel is my best batch of meatballs ever.  They were indeed a hit!  It was a really nice afternoon seeing everyone and spending sometime together.  I would like to do it more just to spend some time together. 

After the Labbe's left Canaan and I took the tree down.  As of this writing it  now sits on the front lawn awaiting Bob to pick it up.  

It was a wonderful Christmas this year and doing a little each day was much nicer than trying to cram everything in, in one or two days.  

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Later Readers!

another blog about Christmas Past

Greetings!

Christmas is almost upon us and like most I tend to get nostalgic this time of year thinking of Christmas past when I was just a youngster.  Christmas morning was always spent at my Mom’s house until my Dad picked me up.  Dad would take me around to various relatives before ending up at Nana’s for the large family gathering and then home to his house where I we would have our Christmas and by that time I was pretty tuckered out.

Because my Dad picked me up Christmas morning I never got to experience the traditions on my Mom’s side of the family.  One year I almost did as I was determined to stay with my Mom for Christmas and see what exactly they did.  Once Christmas Day arrived though, I was super sad that I was not going to be with my Dad or go to Nana’s that I broke down and cried and asked to go to my Dad’s.  I’m still not sure why my Dad didn’t come pick me up, but instead Mom & Irving drove me to my Dad’s house that morning and we had Christmas in reverse starting at my Dad’s and ending at Nana’s. 

Now a days with my family being splintered and big it would be impossible to celebrate with everyone on the same day so we celebrate on and around Christmas when I have the kids and when it works out for everyone’s schedules.

Kate and I are making a conscious effort to establish our own traditions by doing things together that we had not done with anyone else before.  The first one being Kate’s idea last year when we celebrated our first Christmas together being married was making popcorn strands to trim the tree with.  I love this idea because it’s a very old Christmas tradition and they look really good on the tree!  It is a bit time consuming but we can get them done in one evening. 

I have a certain set of Christmas Specials that I like to watch every year, in no certain order;

A Christmas Story – Jean Shepherd’s classic story of Ralphie and his red ryder BB gun, how can you not like this movie!? 

 

Garfield’s Christmas

 Charlie Brown Christmas

 Muppet Family Christmas – It’s the only time the Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, and Muppet Babies were all in one special, capped with a cameo by Jim Henson at the end it’s THE greatest Muppet production ever!  I have the Canadian bootleg edition with is a complete uncut version.  When it originally aired they only had the rights to use certain songs for the initial broadcast so when they home video version came out they had cut scenes and entire songs while adding in a few scenes.  This version I have someone seamlessly cut together a crisp DVD release with a high quality copy recorded off TV. 

Twas the Night Before Christmas – 1974 Rankin and Bass cartoon that has also suffered over the years from harsh editing.  This time though and entire song was edited out because the lyrics used the word gay to describe happiness. 

Prep & Landing – the newest addition, these tow half hour specials and 1 short are just fantastic!

Love Actually – a British flick featuring a wonderful ensemble cast of multiple intertwining stories of love during the Christmas season.

 

A Christmas Carol - the 1938 version with Reginald Owen as Scrooge.  I first saw watched this in my early teens on Turner Classic Movies and now watch it every year on Christmas Eve.  There have been several other outstanding versions of the classic Dickens story that I truly enjoy, but this one has always been my favorite. 

I try to watch each of these with the kids in hopes that they will also grow to love them as I have.

That’s all for today, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and until next time,

Later Readers!

Mike

My favorite Christmas Song

Last of November

Greetings,

So a bunch has happened but I’m going to try and keep this short.  As you can see this is my third post in rather quick succession and you’ll know why in a moment. 

Firstly we found a place and moved to Oak St in Gardiner.  I did the majority of the moving but got some great assistance at different times from Irving, Mama Muller, Emma, Bob, Aunt Trish, and Andrew.  We are getting the house situated and are making it our own.   It’s a big home with three bedrooms, dining room, other room, large kitchen, small bathroom, back storage room, and cellar. 

I’m still looking for a record player. 

The biggest pain about the move was dealing with Fairpoint.  I called them several times and was on hold so long I would give up.  Finally on November 5^th I waited on hold for 25 minutes before someone pick up.  Then it took another hour for them to find my account to transfer it over.  Once they were done they told me it should be ready November 13^th.  Awesome.  The 13^th rolled around, no internet working.  I called technical support, where they proceeded to tell me that the DSL isn’t synched.  They need to have a technician come out, but they don’t schedule those.  They gave my number to another department that schedules them and they will call when they have it set up.  So who knows how long that will be. 

So we have been internet less for over a week and it’s getting to me.

Canaan joined the Boy Scouts, he’s a Bear Scout, he is loving it and has even already earned his Bobcat Badge.  Addison joined dance, Jazz dance, and has a recital in May.   Canaan will be starting basketball soon with games on Saturday morning. 

We went for an ultra sound and discovered that our baby is going to be a boy!

What you've read so far I wrote two weeks ago.  It only took Fairpoint 3 weeks to get our internet up and running so I'm finally able to post my blog about the Rhode Island Comic Con.

Once again Kate prepared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for us.  We were joined this year by Cousin Jonny and the Orions. Now that Thanksgiving is over it is officially the Christmas season to me and of course it'll be over before you know it.

In closing here is a video of Cousin Jonny performing Farewell to Nova Scotia recently

 Later Readers!

Piss-Kaw-Talk-Us

Here's the Piss-kaw-talk-us story I told Anthony Michael Hall at the Rhode Island Comic Con

In the background is Anthony Michael Hall at the Rhode Island Comic Con

I was a huge fan of the series The Dead Zone that aired on the USA Network for 6 season from 2002 – 2007, it starred Anthony Michael Hall and was based on the book by Stephen King.  Being a Stephen King story it, of course, took place in Maine and even though the show was filmed in Canada.  Through-out the series they would use actual town names and other locations that were actual located in Maine which I always thought was cool.  In one episode the even had to go to Litchfield, which is where I grew up. 

In Season 2 Episode 18 episode “Precipitate” Johnny must find the Blood Mobile to put right what might go wrong.  For whatever reason the lady at the Blood bank cannot tell Johnny what town the Blood Mobile is in, but she can tell him what County.  He accepts this nonsensical policy and tells the kindly Blood Bank tech to tell him the name of the County.  She checks the book and proudly announced “Piss-kaw-talk-us.” 

I was perplexed, here was this show that always used actual Maine locations and now they are using a made up County name?  I sat there saying the word over and over until I finally realized that they were using an actual Maine county, they just horrible mispronounced Piscataquis. 

From that point on whenever I say the word Piscataquis I always pronounce it Piss-kaw-talk-us.”

On Halloween night 2014 some friends and I traveled down to Ocean State for the 3^rd annual Rhode Island Comic Con weekend.  At the Halloween party that night the man himself Johnny Smith, Anthony Michael Hall walked in the take in the festivities.  I worked up the nerve to go and speak to him and told him the above story of the mispronounced word.  He either genuinely thought my story was humorous or he is a really good actor, which he is. 

I lean to believe that he was being genuine as with each person he interacted with that night and through-out the weekend, from what I saw, he was wonderful with each and every one of them.  He would stand up, shake their hand, give them his undivided attention and have lengthy conversations with them.  On Saturday I noticed he was there right at 9am when the early bird got in, and he was THE last person to leave his table that night at 7pm when they were closing the floor for the night. 

He seems to truly appreciate his fans.

Later Readers!

Rhode Island Comic Con

This blog is late because we moved a couple days after returning from RICC and it took them three weeks to get our internet hooked up! 

Greetings! 

 

This past weekend I spent a spectacular time with some great friends in the Ocean State for the 2014 Rhode Island Comic Con. John, Jere, Ju, Jonny, & I piled into Vanna and about 4 hours later we arrived at the Omni Providence Hotel, we made great time.  We were able to check in early and had adjoining rooms which was very convenient.  The hotel is attached to the Convention Center where the Con was being held, and the Providence Place Mall via a skywalk.  Once we parked the car it didn’t move until we left Sunday.  After getting settled in we attempted to find where we could get out passes as our weekend party pack was at will call.  Turns out we had to go to the ticket master box office at the Dukin Donuts Center, which is attached to the Convention Center, to pick up a single ticket master ticket and then Saturday turn in our ticket for a wrist band that showed we could the weekend pass and were issued another bracelet showing we bout the early bird pass as well.  Those early bird passes paid off more than we thought they would.  

Friday night featured the Halloween Party, and as none of us are party people we weren’t that interested in going.  However, Ju wanted to at least check it out so Jonny and I joined her while John & Jere checked out Dave & Busters.  D&B turned out to be quite disappointing while the Halloween Party was not!!   The three of us met up with Leah, a very awesome young lady who had traveled from the Boston area alone to the con, and eventually John and Jere came down.  Leah is fan of Supernatural and I dare say she likes that more than I like wrestling, yes that much!  The Halloween party featured a mechanical bull, karaoke contest, costume, standard high school dance songs like Cotton Eyed joe, Macarena, and ect and a few celebrity guests; Brian O’Halloran, Scott Schiaffo (the chewlie’s gum representative from Clerks), Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel of the Walking Dead), Linda Blair, Anthony Michael Hall, and Cosplayer Belle Chere.  I got my picture taken with O’Halloran, Schiaffo, Gilliam, & Belle Chere.   The Halloween party was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.  We all had a great time.   I even got to tell Anthony Michael Hall my piss-kaw-talk-us story!

The costumes through-out the weekend ranged from very intricate detailed work that was just fantastic to store bought to meh.  The majority of attendees wore costumes, lots of Dead Pools, Black Widows, Harley Quinns, and lots and lots of cat suits.  There was a few random ‘s that surprised me like a Firestar, Darkwing Duck, and very large heavy set male dressed as Elsa from Frozen.   Everyone was very happy to pose for photos if asked and I got a few.  Once of my favorites was a girl with a very nice Captain American contest with the upper portion was actual scales woven together.  The pictures do it absolutely no justice. 

The convention floor was set up left to right with comic artists, vendors, celebrity photos & autographs, and finally celebrity headliners.  The headliners filled a large area as it was anticipated their lines would be long, and they were correct.  William Shatner was there both days and I never saw him once.  Outside the convention center on the main floor were several vehicles and minor booths set up.  Vehicles included; the DeLorean, Kitt from Knight Rider, Mystery Machine, and other.  If you went up to the next floor they had the panel rooms as well as the pro photo op rooms, and a few other attractions.   We all pretty much did our own thing on the convention floor, sticking together and separating at times.  I had Brian O’Halloran sign my Vulgar DVD, a couple trading cards by Curt Hawkins and my photo with him, also a photo with cosplayer Jennifer Rose. 

 I was at a comic book convention so of course I picked up plenty comics, some of them for pretty darn cheap too spending about $20 on close to 40 books.  Also Jonny got me a Bates Motel room keychain, pretty darn cool!  They had a lot of really neat stuff there, and if I had the money I could have spent quite a lot of it. 

 On Saturday Jay joined us as he was there to see and meet Colin Baker the 6^th Doctor.  We did hang out on the floor together for a bit, but mostly he did his own thing as well.  He got a couple signed photos, did the professional photo op, got that photo signed as well, and attended his Q&A Panel.  Jay had worn a Dr. Who shirt that his the outfits of all the doctors on it in the order with which they played the iconic character.  In the photo Colin pointed to himself on Jay’s shirt, it’s pretty awesome!

Jonny and I attended the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark panel as we planned on meeting everyone for the Supernatural Panel that was to follow after.  They couldn’t get in because the crowd was so large, so it was just Jonny and I.  Then everyone on the panel except for Jim Beaver, had played bit characters that were only in a few episodes.  The main reason I had wanted to go was to see Mark Sheppard in action as Leah had sold how funny he was at the panels, and he wasn’t even there.  So we left.   We were pretty tired from being on the floor all day and decided to head up to the room for a spell, knowing we probably wouldn’t get back on the floor.  Basically they oversold the show and the Fire Marshall shut it down as far as for a few hours they wouldn’t let anyone back in the center, no matter what kind of ticket they had.  People were lined up down the hall ways, around the building outside in the rain, thousands of people.  People were furious and rightfully so, especially the people outside in elaborate costumes that were there for that evening’s costume contest and they couldn’t even get in to have them seen.  Luckily we had the early bird and was able to get in straight away before the chaos broke out. 

Saturday night we all, including our new pal Leah, went to dinner at Joe’s American Bar & Grill.  I had a fantastic burger, cooked to perfection as did Ju.  John and Jere went with the Mac & Cheese  and were very please, Leah the half roasted chicken, and Jonny…I just can’t recall but I’m leaning towards chicken sandwich.  It was fun dinner. 

After we separated as Jonny, John, & Jere headed to the IMAX for a screening of John Wick, Ju eventually made her was back to the room after some window shopping, she almost shared and elevator ride with Brian O’Halloran.  Lean and I ended up heading back to the convention floor for the last half hour of the show.  We grabbed some pictures, browsed a bit, and saw some cool costumes.  The coolest part of all thought was that near the elevators of the hotel we saw Scott Wilson, Hershel from the Walking Dead.  I had a wonderful, but albeit, brief conversation with him and I have to admit I marked out like crazy.  He was such a super nice guy and thanked me after I thanked him and he was so sincere about it too.  Then he ended up on the elevator with us, Leah asked him if he was having a good time and he replied, “more importantly, are you having a good time?”  It was so cool!

Jonny, John, Jere, & I finished off the nice laughing heartily while watching 22 Jump Street.  The movie is completely stupid, but it is hilarious and was the perfect way to close the night. 

Because of the time change we got and extra hours sleep before checking out of the hotel and heading into the convention center.  I took in two panels this day, one about cosplay costume making that was really enjoyable and the other was phenomenal!  Warehouse 13 with Saul Rubinek and Eddie McClintock.  First off they ruled the panel, they cut moderator off immediately and ran it themselves.  When it came time for audience questions Eddie was the one holding the microphone for them even.  In the next room to us was the Walking Dead Panel and the kept erupting in applause, Saul lead us on a loud ovation to out due them, and then when it happened again, he just said “oh fuck them” and continued with his story.  It appears that they characters that they played on the show were just extensions of their natural personalities.  It was a great way to close the weekend before the long drive home. 

I had been reading the weather updates and it was talking about nothing but snow as we were to head north and back home it was piling up.  Fact is we didn’t really hit any snow until Maine, and nothing that affected the roads until Topsham.  So on the van ride home, we made great time!

Planning for this trip started back in February and culminated 9 months later with a fantastic weekend full of interesting stories and wonderful experiences with some great friends!

Later Readers!

The End of the Octobercountry

Greetings,

We have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks, and they are indeed exciting times.  

In just a couple days time myself, John, Jere, Julie, and Jonny will be heading south to Providence for the Rhode Island Comic Con.  Plans that were started in February are finally going to coming together for a grand time indeed.  We will be staying for two nights leaving Friday, Halloween, for the drive south.  The actual con is Saturday and Sunday, the hotel we are staying at is attached to the convention center so we don’t even have to drive to it or deal with parking or anything of that nature.

Friday night is the Halloween Party, Saturday Night is an After party, Saturday and Sunday is filled with walking around the show floor, meeting people, getting photos with and autographs from celebrities of all mediums.  There will be merchandise galore and some wicked cool cosplay.  It’s going to be pretty awesome.  Also Jay is going to meet and spend the day with us on Saturday.

I’m not going to have as much money as I would have liked so my spending on photos and autographs is going to be very selective.  There is going to be a bunch of wrestlers there, but the one I’m looking forward to the most would be Brian O’Halloran who played Dante on the hit film Clerks. 

There are a bunch of panels on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday I’d really like to hit “So you Want to be a voice actor”, “Star Trek Continues”, and Costume Contest. Sunday it’s “TV’s Comic Book Crimefighters” Q&A With George Takei, and “The Secrets of Warehouse 13”.  I don’t know if I’ll make them all but I’m going to try.  I’m surprised there is no wrestling themed panel as there are so many great wrestlers there. 

Also there are gaming tournaments and a bunch of vehicles there from different movies and tv shows like the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard, the Bat Cycle from the 1960’s Batman and more.  Also the RKO Army is going to be doing two live stage productions, Saturday is the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Sunday is REPO! The Genetic Opera.  All the panels and the musicals and free with your admission, you just have to be willing to wait in line as seating is first come, first serve.

If the Halloween party is not my thing on Friday night then I’m sure the Saturday Night after Party will be lame as well.  Luckily there is a wrestling show 20 minutes away that I just may zip over too. 

When I get back thought it's no rest for the weary.  I have one work day and then we sign the lease on the home we are renting and we have to move it.  It'll be a busy long day for sure but Wednesday November 5th we will be our first night in the new place on Oak St in Gardiner.

The Wednesday after that will be a truly exciting day as we hope to find out the sex of baby labbe.

That's all for this week

Later Readers!

This and That

Greetings readers, 

My Grammie  Connie died.  She was my mother’s step-mother.  My whole life she and Grandpa Hobart lived out west at the Grand Canyon and Pahrump, Nevada.  I was never as close to them as my other grandparents based solely on proximity.  I would write Grammie Connie letters a few times a year, the last I received was earlier this year.  And up until the last 10 years they would visit most summers.  The last time I saw them was when I went out to Las Vegas in May of 2007.  We had a nice visit, went to lunch, and they got to meet Canaan.  They’ve never met Addison and I doubt Grandpa Hobart ever will, he seems determined to stay in Pahrump even though he had no family there at all.  

Everything seems to be falling together for us finding a new place to live.  The bank that is foreclosing on the home basically told us we could live there through the winter as it wasn’t being sold until February.  I don’t want to buy and oil for it though, so I’m trying to limp through with what we have.  A place we live on Oak St in Gardiner looks like it’ll be ours come first week of November.  It’s a little bit more a month, but heat is included so awesome!!

Baby Labbe is coming along smashingly, at the time of this posting it is the size of an avocado.  We had an appointment Monday and heard the strong healthy heartbeat along with some kicking and moving around.  It was fantastic!  We have an appointment next month to hopefully find out the sex.

Aunt Carolyn was ordained as the pastor of the Water of Life Lutheran Church in Newcastle this past Sunday.  It was quite an interesting event to witness first hand.  It was nice to see the whole family there, including Aunt Linda up from Maryland to share in the moment. 

Kate and I hit Fat Boy for the last day of their 2014 season, such a fantastic place!  Looking forward to next March.

If you have a chance you should check out my hot dog blog, I have posted it on facebook like I do this one but I should start trying to get the word out more. http://mainehotdog.blogspot.com/

Later Readers

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

I come forth with sad news, after more than 5 months I received a letter of rejection from Tor.com for my story that I submitted.   Although I am saddened by this I will sally forth and locate another place to submit it in hopes of future publication.  After doing some research I located a couple places and just need to decide which one is the right one for me.

I’m working on another story currently about a man and his pen, he really likes this pen!

My stand up material is actually progressing nicely.  I’ve started gathering material in a different and much more effective way. 

Exercising and weight loss has been coming along extremely well.  I’m down over 20 pounds and have almost entirely given up soda.  The giving up soda is a pretty significant since I used to consume so much of it on a daily basis.   I owe a lot of it to my Bubba cup that my best pal John got me.  I’m a big fan of Ice Cold water and this cup keeps it ice cold for hours!

So we have to move.  The people that we are renting the house from basically let it go into foreclosure and then lied to us when they said they were trying to work with the lender on doing a loan modification.  Our lease expires at the end of October so we will need to be out by then.  It’s quite frustrating. 

 

 Canaan is playing tackle football this year for Gardiner, it’s on the 3^rd/4^th grade team.  He loves it and is doing awesome!

            Kate and I went to the Tom Petty concert August 31^st in Portland, it’s his first show in Maine in over 30 years.  Tom Petty is Kate’s favorite musician and this is her third concert of his that she has been to.  Previously in Mansfield, Ma & Kentucky.  Originally we had tickets for the 30^th at Fenway, then they announced the Portland show.  So we ended up selling the tickets to Fenway and buying the Portland ones, and it worked out magnificently.  

            Steve Winwood opened the show with an hour long set, he sang 3 songs that I recognized, “Back in the High Life Again”, “Higher Love”, and what I would call my favorite song of his that he wrote, “Can’t Find My Way Home”.  We sat through his set and it felt like it dragged.  The crowd was very lively though the whole time.  

 

             After a 30 minute intermission Tom came out and we then stood for the next two hours.  Those two hours flew by.  Kate was so into the show singing and dancing with every song.  Every song!  Of course he sang his classic hits and he sang a few songs from his new album as well.  It was really good show!  If he ever comes around again you can bet we will be there. 

Later readers

Bump

               

               As most of you know my Grandfather, Raymond Young, Bump passed away recently.  He was quite ill and his passing was an unexpected expectance.  I’m very happy that I was able to be there for Gram-gram the day it happened.

                If you want to get technical about it, Bump was my step-grandfather, but he and Gram-Gram had been married for nearly 40 years, longer than I have been alive, so he is my Grandfather.  We were all very lucky to have him as our Grandfather.

                My memories of Bump are all fond ones.  I never saw his raise his voice, except at the dogs, and he was always quick with a joke and a smile.  He loved golf, cribbage, beer, and most of all Gram-gram, or maybe beer first.  He was very handy with wood and I have several of his creations in my possession that I have always and will always cherish. 

                In eighth grade I did a report on Bump and his involvement in WWII and I learned things about him that I never knew, and things about the war I had never read in history books.

                Every time I see one of the temporary orange Bump signs I have always thought of him.  

                In one of those, it’s a small world stories, it turns out that Kate’s Grand Dad and Bump were good friends.  Apparently several years back at the golf course Bump and Grand Dad first met when Bump was leaving the club house, he has his WWII hat on and Grand Dad asked Bump if he bought that hat or earned it.  Bumped responded “I earned this son of a bitch.”  It was a start of great friendship.  Grand Dad was also in WWII and both he and Bump traveled to the same places and fought in the same battles, they just didn’t know each other and don’t remember if they actually ran into each other or not back then.   When Grand Dad found out that Bump was my Grandfather I was in!

                What I will remember most though, is all the times we played cribbage together over the years.  I will always be thankful for all the times that he let me beat him, thanks Bump.  I hope someday when I am an old codger I can sit and play cribbage with my grandchildren, I’m sure I’ll let them win too.  

 

Wrestling and the Beach and Stuff

I’m on my second cycle of 10 hour shifts here at work.  These have been rough and it’s been DEAD at night.  Which I know isn’t a bad thing because that means nothing bad is happening.  But man does it make for long nights. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend two wrestling shows on consecutive days Friday July 25^th in Fairfield for Maine Event Wrestling and Saturday in Augusta for IWE.  Canaan and Alex came along Saturday.  Attendance was low both shows, but they were both entertaining in their own way.  I know I got my $10 worth!  My next wrestling outing is shaping up to be IWE in Fairfield on Aug 8^th. 

Saturday morning before going to the matches we took the kids to the beach.  We tried to go to Popham but they closed the road for an hour to celebrate Phippsburg’s 200^th Anniversary, very inconvenient!  We turned around and went to the half mile beach at Reid State Park.  We brought a cooler with lunch and the kids had a blast, we all did! 

I had been doing quite well on my exercising and eating write, I even managed to drop several pounds the last couple weeks.  However, some very unpleasant chafing has but a hiatus on my walking until it heals up.  I’m feeling motivated and want to get moving so this is upsetting because I don’t want to lose that motivation.

I’m approaching 5 months since I submitted by story to Tor.com.  Their website states they usually get back to people in 3 months, if it’s been 4 then most likely it’s in the second look pile.  Of course it follows that up with at 7 months you should hear from us, if it’s been 9 months we probably don’t have it.  I’m hoping it’s that they are considering my story for publication.  That would be a dream come true! 

That’s all for now, check out this great cover version of “I’m on Fire” by Town Mountain, great stuff. 

Later readers!

Mike

Santa's Village

Tuesday plans were made and Saturday they were executed as Kate, the kids, Mom, Irving, and myself headed north west into New Hampshire for a night camping and to spend the day at Santa’s Village. 

We loaded up the van and the 6 of us made the drive to Lancaster, NH and Rogers Family Campground.  Our tent site has water and electric and it ran us a mere $44 for the night.  Where they got us was the firewood.  You cannot bring your own across state lines because of bugs so the charge $6 for a small bundle.  We went through 3 of those plus a bunch of woods for the surrounding forest that totaled the equivalent of two more bundles plus. 

We set up our tents; Addison slept the Mimi & Pappy while Canaan slept with us.  We all went down to the pool for a refreshing dip in one of their 3 in ground pools, a wading one, a 3 footer, and one that went from 3 feet to 10 feet deep.

We cook hotdogs on the fire for dinner, the kids each cooked their own it was awesome!  Reminded me of our honeymoon and solidified that whenever we go camping hotdogs will always be cooked over the fire for dinner.   Everyone but Kate went down to the game room to waste some quarters.  I won Addison a purple elephant from the crane game, she was super excited.  After Irving and I vanquished some young punks from the pool table Canaan played his first game.  He was rough, but got better as he went.

The kids hit the sack and we sat out by the fire enjoying the beautiful night air.  It’s so peaceful sitting by the fire, not talking at all just watching the flames and the stars.

Kate didn’t sleep well to say the least while I myself was exhausted as I had gotten out of work at 7am and only slept a couple hours before hitting the road Saturday.  It was a bit chilly at 5am and Kate was stoking up a fire when I exited the tent. 

Kate cooked up breakfast a delicious spread of bacon, sausage, and pancakes!  Mom brought real maple syrup for which is the only way to go.  We cleaned up, packed up, and arrived at Santa’s Village before the doors opened at 930.   

The place was already hopping when we got there, however, waiting to get in was the longest line we waited in all day.  

We were there for just over 6 hours and worked out way through the whole park with the kids riding on every ride they wanted to go on, sometimes more than once.  We adults joined in on the fun and partook in several rides ourselves.  Addison was the champ though, riding the most and being the most daring!  A couple she wasn’t a big fan of but she was brave and out lasted them with the help of Steppy who was cheering her on yelling “that’s my girl” which gave her confidence.  She didn’t hesitate to try any of them! 

We had a picnic lunch in the park of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and chips in the Gingerbread Forest sitting on a picnic table in the shade.  It was overcast the first half of the day and the sun came out the second half of the day, but it never got too hot.  You couldn’t ask for a better day. 

Santa’s Village has changed so much since I last went over 20 years ago.  The park is modern and updated, super clean, bathrooms everywhere, and while they sell food and drink for the standard elevated prices they also supply several quaint picnic areas for families to bring their own lunch. 

Everyone had a fantastic time!

We stopped in Bethel on the way home for dinner at the Crossroads Diner.  We had passed it on the way over the day before and the parking lot was packed, today though, no so much.  The kids got cheese quesadillas, Irving soup, mom chicken fritters, and Kate and I got burgers.  

Those burgers were fantastic!  At least a half-pound patty with cheddar cheese, bacon, this slices of tomato and tangy pickles with mayonnaise on a soft yet golden toasted bun.  Mine was cooked a perfect mid-rare!  Kate also enjoyed hers immensely!  We agreed that we would go back again if ever in the area for another rock solid burger! 

Maybe someday we can hit Storyland. 

Later Readers!