I know just how this boy feels. Who said Santa Claus was dead? Cruel, just cruel.

First to my Australian friends.... Blogger has been a real pain as of late. I have tried to post comments to Jen and Cazz but was rejected each time. I want you to know I listened to "G'Day, G'Day" in its entirety. Interesting, most interesting. I also liked the "Monkey" video clip and found it hilarious.

Pamela I have tried to post a comment to you as well but again Blogger would not let me. There have been others but at this moment I don't remember who. I sure miss Schaumi though.

Not much to report here today. It was colder than he... well, let's just say it was very cold last night. I took a bus load of girl basketball players to a school that is out in the boondocks and talk about a cold wind blowing. The temp had to have been around 5 or 6 degrees but the wind was blowing about 20 mph and the wind chill factor was just plain miserable. Wah, wah, wah. It looks like snow today.

I have managed to piddle away this day. I am supposed to be making calendars for my kids and their families (something I do each year)so we can keep track of birthdays, anniversaries, as well as telephone numbers and addresses. My heart just isn't into it today so will go and take a nap to see if that will help.:)

Hope you are all having a good day or G'day. Luce hope your day is better. I can't believe I, a Mormon, gave you advice to pour yourself a cold one, eat chocolate and just relax in front of a nice fire. We don't drink and shouldn't encourage others to do so but what the heck, if it makes you feel better go for it. Anyone who lives in Texas deserves something to make them feel better.

Hey, how do you put a counter on your blog so you can see how many hits it has?

Blogger is giving me fits this morning. This is mainly for UKBob and Claires Garden or anyone else who would like to comment about my predicument.

When I moved into this house the yard was in sad shape and had not been taken care of in a long, long time. The lilac bushes had gone wild so I took a saw and leveled them to shoulder height. My wife thinks I have ruined thema and they will not produce leaves or flowers. I need to know if this is true or are they okay and just need time to look nice again.

Thanks to anyone and everyone.

This Christmas picture didn't turn out as good as I wanted but the thought is still there.

Yesterday I asked for responses about Christmas traditions. I thought I would tell a couple of ours that we have done for many years. What Cheryl and I are finding that as we get older and the kids are no longer around we have to change some of the things we do. Bummer in a way.

One tradition I started when we first got married was putting a small gift for Cheryl in the tree. The kids would all know about it and it was as much fun to watch them trying to keep a secret as it was for Cheryl to find it. She was a pretty good sport about not looking until Christmas morning. The kids would all watch and do the warm, cold, hot thing as she looked. Some years it would be earrings, another was a ring, one was a watch. I have not kept this tradition up too well so maybe this year there will be another item in the tree.

Each Christmas eve we would all gather around and I would read the Christmas story from the Bible, we would sing some songs and have goodies to eat, then we would get in the car and drive around looking at Christmas light displays. Being a young father I never realized at the time how much fun it was. Now that I am older and the kids are gone I kind of miss it. Cheryl and I still go around looking at lights.


Another tradition that I started (and sometimes wish I had not)was one where I would tell or read The Night Before Christmas but... I would insert songs throughout the story. Personally I thought it was rather dumb and the kids would tire of it quite easily, such was not the case however. One year I had no intentions of reading and singing but the kids put up such a squawk that I continued with that tradition. Now they think I should do it for the grandkids but so far grandpa has vetoed such actions.

So those are some of our traditions. I do hope some of you will respond. Last night we had a group over to our house and we discussed this very item. It was interesting what their parents did when they were children and what they did with their own families.

Go to go. It is supposed to snow more today and I need to rest up for all that shoveling Cheryl will have to do.

Hot dog it worked. Thank you Tiger Sue and Schaumi for helping me.

I know all of you have seen this picture before but this is the one I want on my profile if I can now figure out how to do it. Handsome pair aren't we.

It is cold and wintry today. Snow has been coming down off and on and the wind bites right through you. I was out putting up some Christmas lights and decided we have enough for this year. Cheryl has the house looking really nice. It is amazing how the Christmas season brings out a warm comfortable feeling. I can't help but feel for those who are in the war zones and having their families destroyed by evil forces.

Went to Preston, ID over the weekend and watched the light parade and the bed races. It was fun to say the least although a bit on the cold side. Cheryl and I finished up our shopping for the holidays and then went to our daughter's place for her husbands birthday. He is an OLD 29 years. How would it be to complain about being 29. Actually I am very happy with my age. I can flirt all I want and no one takes me serious, foolish females anyway. heh,heh,heh.

Tonight our little town is having its lighting ceremony (whoopteedoo) and then a bunch of us are coming back here for hot chocolate and cookies. Should be fun. Hey, I was wondering what the Australians do for Christmas. It is not the time for snow down there so do you pray for a Christmas rain? Santa has to put on his speedo's when he goes down there.

Does anyone have any Christmas traditions you would like to share? I might have asked this before but I find it interesting what others do that is special for the holidays. (No, Luce and Schaumi, wild office parties do not count as tradition). hee, hee.

Guess I will close and go take a nap. I mean I have vacuumed, put up lights, had to fix my own lunch and the list goes on. I am pooped.

Have a nice day everyone.

After these many years of telling us that wearing seatbelts will prevent us from being hurt in an accident, officials have figured out that not only will they prevent us from being too seriously hurt but... they will prevent accidents also.

For some reason I got to thinking of snakes. Now why in the name of common sense I would think of snakes is beyond me because I hate them with a passion and am scared to death of them. I have always maintained that a snake could not kill me because I would have a heart attack from fear first.

When I was 17 or 18 years old I was logging for a man in Island Park, Idaho. This is where I had the encounter with the bear and I wrote about it about a year ago. I was working with another young man and we stayed up there in the woods for a week at a time. The boss, Lee Kaufman was his name, put up with us two knotheads and was very patient. Each night when we would leave the work area we would ride in Lee's pickup down to where we were camped. Garl, my friend and co-worker, and I would always get in an argument, friendly of course, about who was going to set by the window in the pickup.

One day we were going especially strong as we descended the hill to get in the truck and we noticed Lee stop and was doing something with his shoe. We just figured he was re-tying his shoelace. He stood up and growled, "I am sick and tired of hearing you two argue now get in the truck and let's go." Well, okay Mr. Huffy.

Garl jumped in the middle and I got the door. I had no sooner shut the door when Lee opened his door and threw a snake onto us and said, "Now let's see how fast you can get out!" The snake landed across both of Garl's arms and he just kept it coming my way. I about tore the door of the truck off trying to get out. Poor old snake landed on the floor and slithered out onto the ground. I wouldn't even ride in the cab that night I was so shaken up. Danged onery Lee anyway.

I don't know if you have read the story from Reader's Digest about Snakes in the House. Made me shiver for a long time just to think of what those poor people went through. This fall there have been two instances of the same thing happening near the small town of Sugar Salem, Idaho. In the first story the people discovered them in the basement and in the ceiling. The second story they were found in the laundry basket curled up in the laundry. There many others discovered in other places as well. Can you imagine that poor lady when she flipped her laundry and there lay several snakes? Holy Moly I would have screamed like a little (kid) and would have refused to sleep in that house again.

Mw wife likes to tell the story of me and the snake while we were living in Riggins, Idaho. I had gone out to the garden, we had a beautiful garden, to check something and my oldest son, Kip, had toddled along after me. I seen that snake slithering in the grass, screamed and then told Kip to go get the gun. He ran screaming to his Mother and she brought the gun thinking I had been attacked by an anaconda. I blasted that snake to smitherines while my wife walked back to the house in disgust. Listen, a 12 inch snake can be deadly 'cause size doesn't matter. Turned out to be a harmless garden snake but it looked like an anaconda to me.

Okay, enough of the snake stories. I have the shivers just thinking about them.

Hi everyone,
A very quick and short blog today. I appreciate Tiger Sue and Schaumi for telling me how to put a picture on my blog. Right now I am so tired that I can't think straight so will try later. I took the varsity girls basketball team to play a game and it consisted of a 300 mile trip. I got home at 2:00a.m. and needless to say I am tired. At 5:00 a.m. a certain female whose initials are Cheryl Delaney awoke and just had to tell me about her day yesterday. Groan... I think I will go back to be right now. Have a great Thanksgiving.




MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.
MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP,
MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS,
MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,
MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER
STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS.
Happy Thanksgiving

Okay, will someone please help this poor stupid man? I want to put a picture in my profile. I have the picture in my computer and on Yahoo pictures. How do I get it from one of those to Blogger so it shows up each time someone reads my blog? I think the Irish want to disown me over this.

I know I posted this picture last year but it still rings true.

I never have claimed to be a smart person and sometimes my actions prove me right beyond all words. Last Friday Cheryl and I went to the LDS temple in Logan, UT. Afterward we were kind of hungry so we went to Wal-Mart where a Subway sandwich shop is located. They have pastrami and we both love pastrami so we ordered that meal. For a drink they had Vault energy drink in their fountain and having never had Vault I ordered a 64 oz. cup. Tasted real good so I had another as we shopped Wal-Mart. We were both in a gazing mood, which is highly unusual for me, and we took over an hour just putzing around. Time to leave so we went back to Subway and refilled our drink; #3 cup of Vault energy drink.

We returned home, put things away and settled down to watch Ghost Whisperer, Close To Home and Numbers. Time for bed so we said our prayers, turned off the lights and prepared for a good nights sleep. Right? Wrong!!

That lucky Cheryl went to sleep immediately but me, oh no, it was more like this:

Me: "Close eyes and let's get some sleep."
Eyes: Blink, blink.

A half hour goes by:

Me: "Come on eyes, I am tired and I have to get up early."
Eyes: Blink, blink.... blink, blink.

An hour goes by and Cheryl is snoring with the best of them but me...
"Please eyes, close and go to sleep."
Eyes: Blink, blink, blink.

Two more hours go by and I have tossed and turned while Cheryl continues her snoring.
"Eyes will you PLEASE close and let me sleep."
Eyes: Looking around in the dark counting the white spots that float by, blink, blink, blink.

Finally about 4:00 am they close a little and then flutter finally letting me get some needed sleep. 5:00 am Cheryl rolls over, "Hey, are you awake?" I almost made her eyes go blink, blink from something poking them. "Boy", she said, "I sure slept good, how about you?" Once again I had to hold my hand back from poking her in the eye with my finger.

Energy drinks and me just don't get along.

Well Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The forgotten holiday. I guess everyone can think about the PS3 they didn't get or the Wii. Me, I don't play those games so it didn't matter to me. Looks like Cheryl and I are staying home and having dinner for just the two of us. We bought the DaVinci Code and will watch that. All of our kids are going somewhere else. This is the first year we have faced not having them around and I don't think we like it too much. The price we pay when they grow up and parents from the other side of their marriage want them to come and visit, or they live too far away. Hope everyone and anyone who reads this dribble has a very nice Thanksgiving day.

Do they celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, Scotland, England, Canada or Texas? Sometimes we Americans get to thinking the world does just like we do.

Time to close.

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike

English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

"House" for instance, is feminine "la casa."

"Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lapiz."

A student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"

Instead of giving the answer,
the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female,
and asked them to decide for themselves whether
"computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer"
should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computadora"),
because:

1. No one but their creator
understands their internal logic;

2. The native language
they use to communicate
with other computers is
incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes
are stored in long term memory
for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make
a commitment to one,
you find yourself spending
half your paycheck
on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group,
however, concluded
that computers should be Masculine
("el computador"),
because:

1. In order to do anything
with them,
you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data
but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed
to help you solve problems,
but half the time
they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one,
you realize that if you
had waited a little longer,
you could have gotten
a better model.

The women won.

I was going to say this reminded me of my daughter in law Audra but after much more consideration I could see the resemblance of my daughter Katherine when she comes home from the hospital. If you look closely you will see the steam coming from the nostrils much the same as a puffer billy would do. Ha, ha, ha, ha. I am so funny I crack myself up.

Not much to say today. It is cold and I am cuddling up to the heater until the house gets warm. Cheryl just called me for breakfast. Only food will drag me away from the heater.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Have a nice day.

I think I have mentioned that my wife belongs to the Red Hat Society and I thought this picture depicted what they are all about. Are any of you ladies a part of the Red Hat Society?

I have this tune which keeps running through my mind so I guess if I write it down it will leave so I can listen to something else.

"Down by the station early in the morning. See the little Huff and Puff all in a row. See the station master blow his whistle. Huff, puff off they go." Now I know this is not exactly how the words go but for my purposes this is how I sing it. Why do I do this? Well....

I have this daughter named Katherine although she goes by Kate all the time. Now Katherine is an unusual girl. She sometimes gets upset over the most trivial things and she really does start to huff and puff like a locomotive. The only person in her life who can control her huffing and puffing is her Father. I must give her credit though, because at times she can get even quite well.

I used to play pranks on her by calling where she worked and saying I was from the police department and we had a warrant out for her arrest. I would tell her employer that she was considered dangerous and to not let on that we were looking for her. I never did have an employer not say something to her. Once she heard that someone called and asked about "Katherine" she instantly knew it was her Dad. I have never been one to call her Kate. I named her Katherine and that is how it should be with the middle name of Huff and Puff. So her name is really Katherine Huff and Puff Delaney.

One of my other daughters named Kimberly got me good in church one day. She was visiting and I was introducing those who were visitors. When I came to her she stood up and told her name and that her parents were Mom and the "Old Fart" harassing everyone. I thought everone was going to split from laughing.

Well, Cheryl is telling me to do something constructive so I better close for this day.

Woke up this morning and started humming a tune. "Looked out my window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree." However I had to change some of the words to this, "Looked out my window and what did I see? Snow a sagging from my apricot tree." Yup, it snowed last night oh lucky us. Actually I am glad it did. This has been a dry summer and we need moisture in the mountains to supply needed water for the coming year. I just don't like to drive, work, walk, shovel or any other chores I can think of that would require me to be in the snow. To think that at one time in my life I loved the snow for the snowmobiling, skiing, snowballs and other great fun times. I used to go out in the shed where the cattle were bedded down from the storm. I would snuggle up against one of the cows and be toasty warm and just watch the blizzard rage.

Just got back from a trip to Boise, Idaho. I took student body officers from three high schools to a convention that included all schools throughout the state. I must admit these kids that I had were ladies and gentlemen. Not a problem of any sort. Coming back my bus developed an oil leak and I put in 11 gallons of oil just to get us home. Cheryl did not go with me since she had to work one of the days I was gone. She also felt she should be here for her Red Hat meeting. Probably just as well that she didn't go since she would have made me take her shopping. As it was I got to watch tv for a little bit.

Yesterday was church and I had to speak on a subject that is definitely not my strong point. Home teaching and missionary work. I don't like to do either one.

Oh, Gwen if you read this please make a comment so I can get your blog site again. Same with "little Jen". For those of you who do not know, both of these ladies are from Australia and are a couple of hoots. Schaumi I really enjoyed your blog about your mother. Let's have some more stories. Luce are you behaving yourself?

I have got to remember to write some stories about Huff and Puff.

Have a nice day everyone.

Those darned aliens struck again only this time with my daughter Kim. Amber are you loose and tormenting people? It is a good thing they don't know where my daughter Katie lives. Even that picture would scare me. She WAS abducted and they did strange things to her 'cause she sure is strange. I keep asking her mother who the real father is.:)

It is football season and it reminded me of another story from my past. My home town and community was quite small. Our graduating class from high school was a total of 54 and it was considered quite large. Most of the students were involved in some kind of activity whether it be sports or music or whatever. I wanted to play football but my freshman year I had an operation which removed about six inches of bone marrow from my left leg. It was used for my sister, who had polio, and had lost the use of her left arm. They placed the bone marrow in her arm hoping it would restore some use to it and it worked. Of course it worked!! Consider who the marrow came from. Irish people don't do things that don't work. Anyway that shot down my football playing that year.

My sophomore year I played but was not very good due to being behind so much.

My junior year I was really looking forward to football but.... I was finishing helping a friend put up his hay. We were bringing in the equipment and my cousin and I were riding on one of the tractors. Actually he was driving and I was riding. It was one of those tractors that did not have fenders over the wheels and I was standing on the axle next to the wheel. Being knotheads and such we of course had the throttle wide open and were barreling along when we hit a bump in the road. It knocked me into the wheel which caused me to lose my balance and I fell right in front of the wheel when I hit the ground. Instantly I rolled because if I had not my head would have be squished and I would be new road kill. However my feet had caught on part of the tractor and I was bent in a backward position where my feet were coming over my head backwards. You know that hurts just a tad.

Luckily my cousin had quick reflexes and stopped the tractor before it had a chance to break my back. I do remember yelling at him to get that *&^%$#@!!! tractor off of me. He backed up, called the ambulance and they hauled me off to the hospital. I was very fortunate. The flesh from my ribs had been scraped off, my back had been traumatized (for lack of a better word) and I hurt, oh did I hurt. The worst part of the whole ordeal was the nurse taking alcohol and cleaning my ribs. They had dirt and gravel imbedded quite badly. Needless to say I did not play football that year either.

I was so far behind the other kids that by my senior year I was like a freshman starting out. So that is my story and I am sticking to it.

There Katie are you happy?

Have a nice day everyone.

This is a picture of my son in law. Proof that aliens DO exist.



Of course his wife (my daughter) was abducted and they did wierd things to her and this is the result.



But look what they did to my pretty little granddaughter Rylie.

Have a nice day everyone.

These are hats that I make for the fun of it. Most of them are toddler hats but I have made them for youth and adults. What do you think? I make white hats and Cheryl makes booties for newborns for their blessing outfits if the parents wish.

I am in love with a man. I guess I lived in California too long. Believe it or not it is a Black man I am in love with. Maybe I should enlighten everyone more. I am actually in love with the product he endorses. The George Forman Grill. I have never found anything that cooks bacon as well as the George Forman Grill. It comes out just perfect and crunchy and yum, yum, yum. Even Gus, our cat, likes bacon cooked in the George Forman Grill.

The other day I took some chicken breasts, fondled them for a while for a cheap thrill, (I can't believe I just said that), cut them into strips and deep fried them in the deep fryer (hence the term deep fried) but only after I had coated them with onion ring batter. Talk about good. The meat was so moist and delicious plus the batter tasted better than anything the Colonel has produced.

Cheryl has been gone for a week that is why I am cooking.

This has been the week for me to leave computers alone. A lady asked me to install a program on her computer and it would not accept the program. In the process of trying to figure out why I managed to blank out her monitor and cause the Windows operating system to repeat itself over and over and over. Hmmmm, to the repair shop we went. Turned out to be a corrupted file on her computer but I just had to be the lucky one who it turned on. Oh lucky me.

Then I went to the local Family History Center to help a man understand the name extraction program. While helping him I noticed that the fonts on the computer were very small and hard to read. Well, I knew how to fix that... I thought. In that process I managed to get the monitor to read upside down and I didn't know how I did it. Called the help desk and I think they are still laughing over this one. Turns out that if you hit CTRL, ALT and the arrow keys at the same time you can turn your monitor screen sideways, upside down and etc. Now this is not good since part of the extraction program calls for those commands CTRL, ALT and the arrows to move a highlighter around in the program. Oh lucky me again, but at least it is fixed. I think I am banned for life from the local Family History Center.

The whole problem is that I have not been working that much this week. I am in the lull while athletic teams are going from football to basketball. I expect in the next couple of weeks I will be running hard and fast again. Too much time on my hands to think about why a computer will not do this or that. Many times I have been told, leave it alone. Hmmmmm. Oh well. Guess I should go rake leaves.

Have a nice day everyone.