Aspiring Musicians

A very good friend of mine I grew up with, is an aspiring musician, and is brilliant when it comes to tweaking his voice to sound like absolute heaven. When I moved to this town when I about twelve years old, he was the first friend I made that lived right next door. Ever since we have been inseparable.

I even remember the first day we moved into our new home, I turned on the music in the garage and started doing cart wheels in the backyard, while he was jumping up and down on his trampoline in his backyard with a friend. Both of them were about 10 years old and had toy microphones in their hands, something I found later to be his sisters toy microphones. They were both singing and raping while jumping on that trampoline, it was too funny.

We noticed we all loved music, and we all started hanging out and playing together. I have watched him grow from that young boy into the talented man he is today. The last time I saw him was two months ago, before he moved about forty miles away to live with his girlfriend, whom is also a good friend of mine since forever ago. Before he left he invited me to a show his was performing at, and I was ecstatic to see him perform finally after all these years.

He expressed an interest in finding a microphone he could find for an affordable price, so he could practice at home before his show date. I remembered the night before coming across a site that offered just that, so I told him that there were microphones for sale as well as some sweet looking new and used mitchell guitars at M F’s, and to check their site out.

He called me a few days later and told me that not only did her order a microphone but he also ordered lehle amp that he found that he is absolutely thrilled to have now. I’m happy I could help him prepare for such a great event I can see him perform at, and see how he can change the world with his beautiful voice.

Green Issues

I figure that we need to go as “green” as we all can possibly become these days. I’ve been told that there are website hosting companies that are doing what they can in order to become environmentally friendly, which I think is pretty darn cool. I’ve always been a recycling freak. I grew up with parents from the “hippie” generation and recycling has always been something that just came naturally due to their generation and their lifestyles.

There is so much more to being “green” than recycling, but it is something that we all can do and should be doing as much as possible. Where I live our taxes pay for our trash removal and recycling pick-ups. They provide us with the bins, one for plastic and glass, the other one for paper.

Each week all we need to do is place the containers on the curbside and the truck comes and picks them up and hauls them away. The only way that they can make it any easier would be to provide a person to stand in the corner of the kitchen or garage and separate and dispose of the items, and that just isn’t realistic now is it.

So I don’t understand why there aren’t more blue bins on the curb on recycling day. It really irks me to know that people are just to darn lazy to make such a small effort that would make such a difference to us all in the end.

Dawn’s Special Day in April

My one sister is the type that has to have the best of everything for her kids. No hand me downs or seconds for her and her girls, must be nice, right? Most new mothers would love to receive anything that they can get their hands on for free. Babies and kids cost a good chunk of change and most of us are really hurting for money these days, but she and her husband are still fairing fairly well and so she just keeps on spending money like it was nothing.

Her middle daughter, Dawn, my favorite niece out of the bunch is having her 3th birthday party come the middle of April. The invitations have been sent out and the plans are being made to have a real nice party for her on her special day. We can only hope that the weather is much better then and we can enjoy the majority of the party outside. My sister is talking of having a clown and pony rides. You never know what to expect, weather wise, in the month of March and April, with all of the spring rain that comes each year, so we can only hope.

I have gone online to find some good gift ideas for Dawn’s birthday present. I have a few years experience buying clothing for her kids and one website I can always count on to have some of the most unique, stylish and trendy clothing available. They have brand names like jellycat, alex, haba, barefoot dreams, skip hop, appaman and wow toys that are just fabulous and affordable. They offer free shipping with orders over $65 and are currently having a sale with sales up to 75% off, so I should be able to find a few good deals in time to have them wrapped and ready to go by April.

Sweets as a Substitute for Nicotine

I would really like to quit smoking. A friend of mine suggested eating Jelly Beans when I finally make the decision to put them down once and for all. After all President Ronald Reagan used them successfully when he quit smoking back in the 1960’s and made the Jelly Bean industry a pretty penny with a major come back due to the publicity of it all.

Jelly Beans, from that time on on were not just for Easter any more. Starburst Jelly Beans are and have always been my favorite and if I could find an online Wholesale Candy company that I could buy some in bulk, in anticipation of the “quitting date” I would be willing to place an order for a decent price. Something to put on my ever growing, never ending, to do list.

If I find myself having a craving for chocolate I can always count on a Clark Bar satisfying the immediate desires. Clark Bars haven’t changed a bit all these years, along with the Snickers Bar they both have always been on top of my list. Some things thankfully never change.

I’ve been smoking for over 20 years, I’m sure that if I quit I’d feel much better all the way around, mentally and health wise as well. I know I’d save a good amount of money that could be put to much better use.

Famous Birthday Quotes

I was looking around online for a free leap year birthday card to send to a friend who is celebrating his birthday this year on February 29th since there is actually a February 29th this year.

I couldn’t find any birthday leap year cards at the few stores that I’ve frequented in the past couple of weeks and now that the big day is here I’m reduced to send an ecard. There is nothing wrong with an ecard, but there is nothing like the real thing for some folks. I used to be able to find all kinds of good quality free ecards, years ago, but then so many places started charging and I’m not into that scene. So the free ones that are left aren’t all that good, funny, cute, etc….

Hallmark.com used to be my favorite, they used to have the best free ones. But I don’t even go there anymore, why walk into what you know will be a disappointment. Anyway while searching today I found these cool Famous Birthday Quotes and though I’d share it here.

Famous Birthday Quotes!

The best birthdays of all are those that haven’t arrived yet.
~ Robert Orben

May you live all the days of your life.
~ Jonathan Swift

Inside every older person is a younger person – wondering what the hell happened.
~ Cora Harvey Armstrong

To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
~ Bernard Baruch

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.
~ Robert Frost

If I’d known I was going to live this long (100 years), I’d have taken better care of myself.
~ Ubie Blake

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
~ Lucille Ball

Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
~ Jack Benny

Pleas’d look forward, pleas’d to look behind, And count each birthday with a grateful mind.
~ Alexander Pope

Whatever with the past has gone, The best is always yet to come.
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I love chocolate

Funny how our taste buds change as we grow older, as a kid I wasn’t all that crazy about chocolate. I loved candy as much as the next kid, just not so much the chocolate variety of candy. Halloween was always my favorite Holiday, besides Christmas of course, man we would come home with bags overflowing with all kinds of candies to keep us happy for months well after that wonderful night of trick or treating through out the entire whole neighborhood with my siblings and friends.

But now I love chocolate, not the dark kind, but milk chocolate, lately I can’t seem to get enough of it. I hear that chocolate is now on the list of healthy things to eat, so that makes me feel better and I’m glad that I haven’t put on any extra weight due to my latest cravings of these tasty morsels of these creamy delight called chocolate!

If a man wants to put a smile on my face, a box of chocolates is a great way to start! Valentines Day is now my favorite holiday to receive my fare share of chocolates & candies. Oh yeah, there is always Easter, and it’s only a few weeks away!

 

Dad, My Handy Man

At some point I will take the time and look for some new exterior shutters for the place. Each time my parents come over my father points out what a difference a pair of exterior shutters would make for the front of the house. He has even offered to look around for and with me when I’m ready to commit, so that would be cool.

My father has always been handy around the house and the yard, so any time he wants to give me a hand around the place, I’m all for it!

Finding The Perfect Boss Guitar Pedals

There was no way that I would have thought it to be such a challenge to find the right boss guitar pedal to give to my kid brother for his 19th birthday, which will eventually come this May 17th. I have  been looking online a bit here and there and I just felt that it was all over my head. I know that he really wants a boss guitar pedal, a tc electronic flashback delay toneprint  but there are just too many of them out there for me to choose from, so I am going to play it safe and give him a gift card for $100 and tell him to find the right one and put that money towards purchasing the correct one that he wants.

There is going to be a good sized birthday celebration dinner at our folk’s place. Not sure how many are expected to show up. But then we never know until it happens with this very large family that is know for last minutes circumstances. It’s such a drag that so many of us have moved so far away and we don’t get together much these past several years. So we will see who turns up to help celebrate Steve’s 19th birthday. This will be that last birthday that entitles him to be called and/or referred to as a teenager! It’s a pot luck dinner so I think that I’ll bring my well received meatballs to share this time around. I haven’t made them in a while and they are always a big hit.

Games For Girls

It wasn’t too awfully long ago that one would have a hard time finding games that targeted the girls that spend a good amount of time playing games online. But there has been a big push to get more games out there and I’m glad to see that it is working.

My 12 year old daughter enjoys all types of games, but there are times that she really wants to enjoy being a young girl, and doing girlie things, so I’m glad that she found a site that is all about  Girl Games at Easygirlgames.com.  She tells me that they are pretty easy, fun and that they have a wide range of games for girls spend their free time checking out. She is getting too old for toys, but still a bit young for boys and still spends most of her time at home, rather than running the roads or hanging at the mall with her friends. So gaming is a good way for her to spend some of her free time.

Tattoos

More and more as I go throughout my daily chores and errands, I see a lot more people with tattoos! Honestly, I don’t understand the popularity of them at all. Most of the people that I know that have had tattoos for a long time tell me that they wish that they had never gotten them. The tattoos have faded, or run, and don’t look good anymore. And a lot of times people have been discriminated against because of the tattoos that they have gotten.

Although I have seen a lot of really pretty, nice looking tattoos, I think that it is a mistake to get them, it costs a lot to have them removed and that procedure hurts a lot more than getting the tattoo in the first place.