This year's Halloween costume is "Day of the Dead". Instead of painting my precious face, I wore a mask. I still fit
into my tux. It's a bit snug but it worked out just well. I am letting the tux hang out in the bedroom to let the smokey
air out. I wore it out over the weekend. Let's see if I can get by without getting it dry cleaned. Charli was so nice
to keep up with her end of the bargain. If you want me to wear my tux into smelly Copa, you'll need to pay for
dry cleaning. A three-piece tuxedo can be upwards of $50 to get it all cleaned up and refreshed again. I declined
the cash that she threw at me. She drove us around town and joined us on the southside so that was more than enough.
We ended the night early and was home about 1am. Tonight is the big night. Let's see how Linwood does it. I keep
hearing how big it gets, especially along 19th Street. Well, I bought a big bag of candy from Sam's and some
individually packaged cheese puffs to hand out. Let's see if kids will make their way to 22nd Street. The church
down the street has an indoor activity tonight to keep their kids inside as opposed to trick or treating outside.
There are warnings that people are giving away marijuana-laced candy to kids. If I had edibles, would I give them
out for free considering? Heck no. To all you crazy people out there, trust me...no one will
give away free edible candy.
October 26, 2017
As I drove to work this morning, two cars were parked in the middle of the road with emergency lights on. Apparently,
the person in the back hit the car in front of her. One person stood there as the other one examined the
bumper. The headlights were on full blast so you can clearly see that there was no damage. I didn't even see any
scratches. The person who kept inspecting the bumper moved her hands all over the bumper to see if it is fine.
I'm not sure if she was the one who got hit or she was the one who hit the car. Both people were standing upright
with no known injuries. They could have easily moved their cars over to the side and wait for the cops to come.
My point is...if you are not injured and your car has no obvious damage, get your ass out of the way and go
about your day. No sense in calling foul play so you can get money out of a petty mistake. In New York, I think we
hit a car in front of us once and the guy stepped out of his car to look at his bumper. It was fine, he gave a
thumbs up, and drove off. I think I did that once in Louisiana. I got out of the car, looked at the bumper and
was okay. There is no need to milk money out of someone and the insurance companies. It's all karma! It will bite
you in the butt some day.
October 25, 2017
The mums are slowly dying. I was told that if you pluck out the bad ones, the new ones will grow in their place.
I do see some new ones blossoming but they are pretty much all gone. I watered them a couple days ago. Maybe it
needs more water. We haven't had rain in a few days and the next cold front won't produce any moisture. Nathan poked
holes in our lawn and dropped seeds. We are supposed to water the lawn at least twice a day to get the seeds to do
their thing. Getting that good grass is a lot of work. No wonder people have sprinkler systems installed. We have
at least one costume party to go to this weekend thanks to Shantelle. I am trying improvise my costume by pulling
different things together. Hopefully I won't look like Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces stuck on me to create
one costume. I am trying to stay clear of drinking coffee during the week. It does help me wake up in the afternoon,
especially after a big lunch.
October 24, 2017
Friday night, we attended the breast cancer fundraiser at the Bricktown Chevy Center. We stayed for the programming
and left when the live music and dancing started. It really felt like a wedding. All of the talking happens then
dancing starts. After the event, we all changed into comfy clothes and snacked it up at the house. I think it was
about 9pm at this point. The next day, Tess and I were off to the Miss OCU Pageant. We spent the morning judging
and were excused for lunch. We returned in the evening for the pageant itself. It rained pretty bad all through
the night. Luckily, there was no hail damage. The next morning, it was breakfast at Aurora followed by some yard
work. I raked up all of the leaves in the backyard to get the yard ready for Nathan. We then went to the Empire Slice
anniversary party. I was looking forward to getting a slice from them but got a fried chicken bun instead. They only
had pizzas for the pizza eating contest. The winner ate a whole pizza in less than ten minutes. It
was nice getting to check out the remodeled Tower Theater. It's such a great concert space. After the tower
theater, we headed to Chow's for dinner. They didn't make Singapore Noodles because they got busy. I have never
heard such a thing. Lucky for us, Jordan picked up two bottles of wine at Water's Edge Winery. All of the liquor
stores close on Sundays so what better way than to get bottles of wine from a winery. Good to know that we have
an option on Sundays. I called it a night after that.
October 20, 2017
You politicized the whole thing by claiming that past presidents did not call families of soldiers killed in action.
You started the whole thing by bringing this up...always comparing yourself to other people and how great you are
doing. Well, it bit you in the behind because people started calling you out. Next thing you know, your Sanders person
said the media and everyone else are politicizing the death of a US soldier. Well? Your boss started the whole thing
so stop punting it back to everyone else. It's despicable what these people do. It all starts with the guy in
charge or thinks he's in charge. He is creating more chaos than ever before. How creates this gloomy world where
only he can bring it back to normalcy. This presidency reminds me of the presidency in House of Cards. Let's create
chaos and insecurity so I can enact executive orders to take away core American values and to keep people in check.
It's my way of knowing where my enemies are and what they are doing. It's not to help the low income and middle
income people prosper but to keep them down and elevate the upper echelon. He comes from that so he wants to retain
that appeal and status. Next thing you know, we will have one day out of the year where we can purge.
Only the rich and most prosperous will have the means and resources to protect themselves against this evil society!
October 18, 2017
I cancelled my flights for tomorrow because the flights will take longer to connect in Houston than to drive. Driving to
Dallas will take about 3.5 hours. Flying to Dallas via a connection in Houston requires me to wake up at 4am as
opposed to waking up at 5:30am to drive to Dallas. Plus, I run the risk of delayed flights if for some reason the
two flights are not on time. There's also a short connection which may make me miss the connecting flight to Dallas.
It's all a big mess. Although I hate driving, driving to Dallas should be a better deal. Thanks for the tip, Taylor! I
wrote back to Kelly what my intentions are and she is on board with it. I needed that extra push to get me in the
right direction. I picked up breakfast tacos at Elemental Coffee this morning. They were surprisingly very good.
I called ahead so I don't have to wait. The two tacos could have been split between breakfast and lunch. Instead of
driving from my office to Elemental, I walked a few blocks. Getting coffee from there reminded me of Nelson because
he loves their coffee. I am enjoying this very cool weather. Too bad it's getting warm by Saturday. It should be back
down to being cool by Sunday because of another cold front. I don't recall dealing with cold fronts while in
New York since it stayed cool and cold all Fall and Winter. Coming back down south, our weather is determined
by the never ending jet stream. That completes today's lesson in Meteorology.
October 17, 2017
My last birthday gig was on Sunday with the Bullard family. If there are birthdays in a given month, there's one
day where we all get together to celebrate those birthdays. I think I am the only person in September and it was already
a crazy month so the October people allowed me to join them. Tess got me a Toanisha Parade cake. Noah sure do know
how to come up with something that sticks till the end of time. I brought it into the office this morning hoping
that it gets eaten up by the folks here. Thank you for my Amazon gift cards! I can never get enough of stuff from
Amazon. Carrie got me a Williams Sonoma gift card. I'll have to find something fancy from there. My space heater
at the office died on me yesterday. I was freezing all day long. I had to run to Target after work to pick up a
replacement. The one that died on me came all the way from New York. I have no idea why I brought it with me
considering I left almost everything behind.
October 13, 2017
We lost in yesterday's kickball game. It was a shit show for sure. The referee could not keep up with the scores
and how many outs people had. There were a couple questionable calls where teams had to discuss what happened.
I think we spent more time talking to the referee than playing the game. Paul and I just stood to the side and
laughed to ourselves. People, it's not that serious! We are playing just for fun. It's not the end of the world.
I have to say, "Both sides are to blame!" I love it when I get to quote Trump. It just sounds so ridiculous and
idiotic. His one-liners can literally keep the memes and one-liner t-shirts into perpetuity. They will never go out
of business. After our game, we went over to Blain and Tess's game. Their team is still undefeated. They are some
serious athletic people. They all are fast and quick in their plays. It's insane how it is different playing them
and the teams we have played. We went to the Garage for food and bingo after the games even though our team was
at the Lighthouse. Kaci went to console Stephen at the Lighthouse and we got our grub on at the Garage. Their
cheeseburger and fries are pretty good. They were extra good last night. Yay for Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches waiting
for us at the house. Tonight we have another batch of cookies to make. This time, it's for Hunter's 1st fiesta
birthday party. Friday is finally here!
October 11, 2017
Jacqueline, if you want to chit chat, then send me more than just "hi ong noi". What do you have to say? It's like
hitting someone and running away. If you got something to say, say more than just hello. I've already replied to you
now I'll just wait for another 16 hours to hear back from you. Geri, I'm here and alive in OKC. If you are ever
in this part of town, feel free to ping me. I'm just a phone call away. My goal is to stay awake at least until 10pm.
I've been getting really tired by 9ish. It's really bad. Although I have been waking up at 5:45am or so, but still...
the goal should be to stay awake until 10pm. After that, I can doze off and sleep for the night. Taylor, I love all
of your food postings. I don't know how you find time to cook and document your recipes to share with others. Julie,
I'm glad we are on speaking terms now. I knew you would come around. It was nice of you to text on my actual birthday
even though I failed to text you on your actual 40th. You wanted space and I gave you that. Tomorrow, I am off to
Tulsa again. It's just for a morning meeting and we are back to Oklahoma City. For last night's dinner, I cooked up
white rice and made an omelet. I added fish sauce and a pinch of sugar to the omelet. I wish I had onions. I love
onions in all of my food. Last night's dinner was definitely a poor man's meal. Paul came home later and warmed up
leftover chicken and veggies. We had what we wanted to eat for dinner, which was a nice change.
October 10, 2017
Who cares if we need to hear from Hillary Clinton about Weinstein...same goes for Obama. It's better that they
are speaking out now even if it is after five days. Where is Trump in making a statement? He won't make a statement
because he probably gropes women left and right. He does it himself so he may even tweet his support for Weinstein.
It's just sad that this is the kind of news we are getting. Any news is bad news. Nothing is ever happy.
October 6, 2017
We won in last night's game. We were down for the first part of the game but managed to win back the losing innings.
They were the best team in our group so it was nice beating them. Last week's game ended up in a tie. I don't know
how that happened. After the game, we went on to sand volleyball. I only stayed to watch them play one game and I
left to go home. Tonight we are supposed to check out the Paseo District but that's up in the air. This is the time
of year when all of the festivals and home tours take place. Summer is too hot here so people wait until late
September through early November to get their outdoor festivals and fairs in. Looks like a hurricane will directly
hit New Orleans early Sunday morning. It is supposed to be category 1. I doubt that my family will evacuate
considering it's only category 1. Let's hope it doesn't get stronger than that. Today I have a few things on my plate
to take care of it but it should be smooth sailing as we progress through the day. When I come into the office for
the day, I make a list of what I need to accomplish. It's a combination of work and personal stuff.
I cross them out as I complete the tasks. It's really handy. It keeps me stay on track for the day.
Mike, don't forget to take care of Adam and Hugo. They are pretty much down for anything so take care of them.
October 5, 2017
The a/c problem wasn't a big deal after all. The repair was $200 as opposed to at least $2,500. The technician replaced
the capacitor to the condenser. That was it. Easy fix for sure...he also checked up on the unit itself and the
thermostat to see if all is working. It appears everything is working for now. He says the unit has about 3-5 years
left. I drove to Tulsa yesterday for work. It was nonstop rain getting there and back. Coming back was worse because
it was complete darkness and downpours all throughout the Turnpike. I stopped at Crest to pick up some stuff on the
way home. It was nice getting groceries in the early afternoon when everyone is at work. I had no lines to deal with
and it was literally all housewives and senior citizens. Some of the Bullards came over for dinner last night.
Adding a stick of butter to your pasta sauce changes everything. It's so good, yet so bad for you. As I dumped out
the leftover sauce into tupperware, I could see the layer of thick oil at the top of the sauce. I tried out the
mini muffin tin and they worked well with the brownie bites. Tammy, I am still recycling thanks to you. We go through
so many recyclables so it makes sense to get them separated from regular trash. I also notice that almost all of
neighbors put out their blue recyclable bins on trash day. I need to get a separate trash can for the recyclables.
Who would have thought trash cans are so expensive? The cheapest 13-gallon I saw is about $25. The rest are at least
$35.
October 3, 2017
I am starting to dread Mondays now. It's tough having to get up early from a long weekend. I missed the gym again
because I was too tired to get up at 6am. I changed the alarm to 7am instead. I got up and was sweating profusely.
I checked the thermostat and noticed that the inside temperature was 73 while the thermostat was set at 71.
Clearly, something is wrong. Air was blowing from the vents but it didn't appear to be cold. It was more of a cool
feel to it, yet not cold. I went to work. The whole day was just dragging. Robert and I had a 2pm meeting in Norman.
After the meeting, I called it a day and went home. I came home and the house was very warm. The inside temperature
increased to 77, while the thermostat was set at 71. Okay, so we have a problem with the a/c for sure. I went outside
to check on the condenser. It was not moving. The fan did not move and there was no sound from the condenser. I
couldn't deal with it now since it's after hours and we had to run to a Yelp event. At this point, it was better to
be out and about instead of having to deal with the a/c issue. We came back to the house later that evening.
The inside air was not so bad because the temperature outside cooled down a bit. The ceiling fan made the
air tolerable. An HVAC person is supposed to come out today to check on it. Kaci indicated that replacing a
condenser will cost at least $2,500. It was time the a/c went out since we knew it was on its last leg. It was going
to happen this year or next year.
October 2, 2017
September came and went away...just like that. We are already in October. This is a favorite time of mine because
of the haunted houses, pumpkin this and that, leaves are changing, etc. The only thing I hate is we lose one hour
because of daylight savings time.