Honest Abe and Crazy Angie: A Birthday Blog

So this blog is a day late, just pretend it is February 12th okay? I have been wicked sick the past few days... so my apoligies for the tardiness of the post.

Happy Birthday Abe Lincoln. Being a native of the Land of Lincoln, I have a particular fondness for Abe. But beyond that I don't really have all that much to say.

I also need to say Happy Birthday to Angie Murbarger. Ang is Nik's younger sister and she just turned 21... watch out. It is hard not to end up laughing your booty off when you spend time with Angie. She is just a whole big ball of fun, and isn't shy about much, that is for sure.

One of my favorite Angie stories is when she was tailgating with us this fall. He friends who were 21 came along and were enjoying some beers. Ang and Nik's Dad, Captain Map was along as well so Angie piled on the charm and asked Jerry, "Daddy, can I have a beer?" The answer was no, but fear not Angie next tailgate you won't have to ask. It was just priceless moment.

Angie is going with us to Spring Training in less than a month. We are driving and I am counting on Ang to provide hours and hours of roadtrip entertainment. I am also counting on her good luck at just being in the right place at the right time. Last summer she was at Al Hrabosky's bar after a Cards game and just happened to be invited to come up to the private room where she hung out with Al, Brendan Ryan, Juan Encarnacion and Miguel Cabrerra. I am just a tiny bit jealous of that.

Well I probably could write lots more about Ang, but I have to save my energy for a few more birthday blogs this week. Happy Birthday Angie... I would buy you a beer for your birthday, but now that you can buy I wouldn't want to deny you the pleasure of buying me one.

Fabulously Sick

This blog will be very short. I was home sick today with the flu/chest cold thing... yuck. The fever has broken and I am over the hump, just have to get over this nagging congestion. Anyway, yesterday on my trip to Walgreens for supplies I discoverd the most FABULOUS thing ever.... Puffs Plus with lotion scented like Vick's vapor rub. They are the bomb diggity, all that and a bag of chips. The lotion keeps your nose from getting all raw, and the scent of Vick's helps keep those sinus passages open. Kudo's to the product development team at Puffs/Vicks for this little modern miracle.

Thanks Babe

Friday night I met Nik in Bloomington and we went to see country artists Luke Bryan and Trace Adkins at U.S. Cellular arena. One of Nikki's co-workers won the tix on the radio. I love free entertainment. Luke Bryan was the opening act, and he is quickly become one of my favorites. We actually saw him this summer at BagelFest in Mattoon about a month before his album came out. He put on a great show, even though he did not sing my favorite song from his album, "Don't Worry About Nothin', Pray About Everything". He did however sing a song he wrote awhile back that became a #1 hit for Billy Currington... "Good Directions". Love that song, so does my buddy Nathan... it is "our" song. After Trace's show Luke signed autographs. I don't have the picture because it is on Nik's camera, but Luke is definitely a good ol' Georgia boy. He was super sweet, and definitly told Nik and I "Thanks Babe!" when we said that we enjoyed his show. He even wrote that on the picture he signed for us.

Trace Adkins puts on a good show too. Trace always puts me in a dilemma. I do not find him remotely attractive at ALL... but there are times he just does, says or sings something and darn it if I am not oddly attracted to him. It is the weirdest thing... oh well.

Oh, and in other random news... this weekend's Kudos once again go to my brother, Phil. He brought his portable sump pump down on Saturday and pumped the water out of my crawl space. Needless to say it was a little wet here and Chez Jano with the recent thunderstorms and snow melt. Luckily there isn't anything in my crawl space, so the only damage was a musty odor for a few days all is well now. Kudos George Philip!

Happy Birthday Brewmaster!

Well here is a birthday blog to lift us from the winter blues… seriously what is up with the weather these days... 10 inches of snow, thunder snow, curtains of fog, then torrential rains.

Anywho, Happy Birthday Larry! Larry Pfeiffer is my brother-in-law (or one of the "outlaws" as he says), and I have to admit that even though I have known Larry Dean for more than 25 years I am not absolutely certain that Februrary 7th is his birthday. I am fairly certain it is, but it could be the 9th… I definitely have the right week though, if not the right day.

My sister, Jan, met Larry their first year of college. I don't really remember Jan dating in high school, but then she goes off to college and pretty much comes home with her future husband her first weekend home. They will have been married 25 years in June… talk about getting it right on your first try!! Besides putting up with Jan for a quarter of century, Larry is just a good guy. He is actually one of those people who says "I think I am going to…", then actually does it. One of my favorite Larry pastimes is brewing beer. I have been the beneficiary of many bottles of beer, and I have to admit he does a mean Samuel Adams imitation. Mmmm beer!

Larry taught high school ag/vo-tech for 10 years, then worked for the State of Illinois as an ag/vo-tech education field facilitator (basically a teacher of and resource to teachers) for another 10 years. These days he is the Superintendant for the Regional Office of Education for Macoupin, Calhoun, Greene and Jersey counties. It is an elected position, so Larry hit the campaign trail a number of years back… marching, waving, tossing candy and kissing babies at every parade, fair and festival in the 4-county area with the campaign workers (Jan, Lane & Eric) in tow. He tells some great stories. Way back on the day (in college) Larry worked as a meat cutter at a grocery store… to this day my Mom puts Larry in charge of all meat cutting and cutlery related duties at family functions. Larry slices a mean roast! :)

Larry is a fun guy to be around, but one of things I most admire about him… he is man of faith, and the spritual leader of their household. He definitely models being a servant, especially for his boys, Lane and Eric. Both boys have volunteered for countless church activities, spent time at the food pantry and rung the bell at the Salvation Army red kettle to name a few. Most recently Larry and Eric spent the week between Christmas and New Year in the 9th ward of New Orleans rebuilding houses… they were on the framing and drywall crew. Last spring Lane was awarded the first scholarship/award for volunteerism, named after a schoolmate that passed away in a tragic accident. Larry is a great role model in many ways, but servant leadership is definitely what I think of first.

Happy Birthday Larry! I couldn't ask for a better Outlaw!

Editors Note: I don't really have a good photo of Larry… sorry. Maybe I should take more photos at family gatherings.

Wrapped Up in Kindness

So last week I received a package in the mail... an unexpected package. The return address was Easton, Kansas. That is where my football mentee from last season, Jake, is from. It turns out that Jake's mom, Trudi, sent me an orange scarf that she knitted for me, thanking me for being such a good mentor to Jake. As she said in her note "I am so thankful that Jacob (that is his given name, and how he is known back in Kansas) lucked out in the mentor department."

Seriously folks, how nice is that? I met Jake's parents on one occasion, at the football banquet last year. I always thought Jake was a good kid... it evidently runs in the family! I love the scarf! First of all it is orange, and well you all know that orange is a staple in my wardrobe. Second, it is handmade so it is extra special. Finally, it is from Trudi, thanking me for being a good mentor to Jake which is a) technically not even my duty anymore since he is no longer a freshman and no longer on the team (although we are still pretty tight) and b) certainly never was a hardship and most times very enjoyable, since some days I thought Jake should be the one mentoring me.

So Kudos Trudi. Thanks for the scarf, and more importantly the sentiment with which it was sent. Oh, so I didn't really want to take a picture of myself (it always looks like I have an abnormally large head) wearing the scarf and I didn't have a live model handy, so my cabbage patch doll (an original from the 80's I had handy for a recent 80's party), Maybelle Lulu graciously stepped in to model the scarf. Thanks Maybelle Lulu!

Super Anne

So I am giving major kudos and super snaps to Anne (see her & Matt's blog link to the right) for introducing me to Google Reader. It is fabulous, you let it know the blogs you want to follow and it tells you when there are new posts on them, kind of like having messages in you in box on email. No more checking each blog only to be disappointed there was no new post. It is a big time saver. Thanks Super Anne!

I did discover that it is kind of tricky with Jake's blog in on the UIUC admissions website, it lets me know whenever there is a new entry from any of the student bloggers not just Jake. No offense to the other bloggers, but I only really care about Jake. Oh well, I can sift through the new posts to find Jake's easy enough.

"Shovel Shoulder" and Snow Theater

It snowed a lot here last night... I am guessing in the 8+ inches range. Needless to say, when it snows that much I have lots of shoveling to do... why didn't I buy a condo? Anyway, I shoveled the first layer last night, and went out at 6:30 this morning to tackle the rest. All in all about 2.5 hours of shoveling. That is where the term "Shovel Shoulder" comes from... my left shoulder is killing me, not to mention my barking back. Actually I developed "Shovel Shoulder" about 2 or 3 snows ago back in early December. Argghh... it is my left shoulder so Nik says that I have Mark Mulder sympathy pains.

So the "Snow Theater" thing. When I was shoveling the drive this morning I was witness to a young couple driving by in a Jeep Wrangler. They had their little plastic windows unzipped I am guessing to keep them from fogging up. Anyway it was very quiet on my street and for the entire block I could definitely hear them having the biggest fight ever. The young lady launched about 20 f-bombs in in less than 30 seconds. I was starting to hit a wall in my shoveling at that point, so the entertainment was actually enjoyable. I call it "Snow Theater" because it reminds me of the "Beach Theater" Nik, Jeanne and I got to watch in Florida a couple of years ago. That time an older couple were having a big argument on the beach not too far from us. Oh, and after the "Snow Theater" was over some crazy lady came jogging by on my street... who jogs in this kind of weather? Anyway, she was very nice and encouraging and complimented me on my shoveling... I was nearing end then and need some encouragment.

Alas... the joys of snow!