News from Ohio

The big deal is that I am as excited as hell about the soccer match I am going to next week.
It's USA vs. Mexico and Todd Runkle, the biggest soccer freak I could think of is going to be coming along. The game is sold out and as it is a world cup qualifier it should be incredibly exciting.
Even more exciting than that is the new cat that is hanging out with us.
Here is Shandy at the back door


When I was in Chateaugay, I helped my father-in-lay install some new posts on their back porch. I was probably more of a hindrance than a help. I knocked the post over once after warning about a dozen people to stay away. Anyway, here we are with the post in the background. Lucy took this pix.

Crew win .... again

The X marks the spot where Lucy and I sat for the Columbus Crew vs FC Dallas game Saturday.
The Crew won 1-0. It was just their 7th win of the season. We have seen three of them. I think they should be buying us tix.
It was also Columbus Crew trash can day and we go a two little trash cans suitable for putting trash in.
The game was delayed for 40 minutes due to an incredible thunderstorm. I think we go some interesting pictures. I will post them when the film gets developed.

Two searches

Two searches that led people to click on this site:

"black superman" lyrics gear daddies

and

Ken or Lena


Again, I hope no one was disappointed.

Love the search engine

Someone visited my blog after typing this search into Yahoo!

"Rachel Ray in a bathing suit"

I hope he wasn't disappointed.

Respect at Work

I'm telling you, the people that work for me are scared to death.

More Vacation Shots

Just so you don't think all we do is take snaps of oursleves while on Vacation, here are some still lifes:

Mary shot this lily from a kayak just down from Chris and Babs' house on the Narrows.
I am not sure if this is the sharpest one. I need new glasses. Please click on this to appreciate the beauty.


Here is Shelly's front porch. Mary took this from her Happy Spot. Click on this one because it is almost life-size.


"Yes, Lucy, this is how the Eskimos take their kids to summer school." Click on this one to appreciate the speed.


Beg me to tow you around the lake behind a kayak. Beg me! Click on this one to appreciate the Homer on my shirt.


Yes, it takes almost 11 hours to get there. Click on this one to appreciate the pout.

New Graser

We have added to the family. Actually, we had little to do with it.
Mary fell asleep in the three season room off our deck and awoke to the howling of a small kitten in a tree in the backyard. The flea-infested little tabby ate like a horse once we got her in the house. It didn't appear that anyone had ever taken care of her.
We named her Shandy, after the alcoholic drink of choice around her lately (sorry Beer Guy).
Sunny the original Graser cat, that looks exactly like Shandy, but a few years older, is not too happy. "Tough tender vittles, Sunny. How can we say 'no' to this:"

Click on it! She is very cute!

Thoughts for the day

I have to change my little profile on the right. I rode my bike yesterday! Not sure how far, but my butt is very sore today.




If you are grilling steak or a big slab of sirloin this summer let me offer this little recipe.
I got it from Rachel Ray and it is incredible.
take 3/4 cup of brown sugar and mix it with 5 tablespoons of McCormick Brand Montreal Steak Seasoning. Pat your meat dry and then dredge it in the mixture... Then grill.

I made salsa over the last few days based on some tomatoes and hot peppers from my garden. I added grilled pineapple and mango yesterday. It is award winning quality. Honest.

Lucy on Vacation

What's a vacation without a ton of photos of Lucy

This is the camera Lucy used until it fell in the lake. It was not her fault.


We generally had nice weather, but when you spend the entire day in a wet bathing suit you can get cold after a while.


It wasn't all fun and games. Here's Shelly consoling Lucy after she bumped something on the boat.


This is Lucy at Lake Champlain. In the background you can see Crab Island. That's where Lucy's old man figured out how to sail.


Here's Lucy in her happy place!

How I spent my Summer Vacation

That's Ron in the front. I am not sure if I am actually helping dock the boat but I am certainly helping to displace water. A kid's gotta do what he is good at.

Shelly's Camp

we spent a lot of time at Shelly's camp here is a series of photos:


This is from the end of the dock looking into the Narrows. Chateaugay Lake has three distinct parts - the Upper Lake, the Narrows and the Lower Lake. Shelly's camp is where the Narrows empties in the the Lower Lake. Very desirable.


Here is a shot of the dock from the front yard. Not sure why there are no boats.


This is the view from the top of the stone steps that lead to the water.


Here is the front yard. It is about a yard wide.


A shot between the planters.


Here is what the camp looks like from the lake. It is the red buidling peeking out from between the trees. If you look close you can see me on the dock. Lucy snapped this shot.

Does this make me look fat?

"It's not the gloves that make you look fat -- it's all that fat."


Nice tan, Casper.

Everything is OK

Lucy and I went tubing while on vacation. Ron, who was gracious enough to drag our carcasses around the lake gave Lucy the hand signals to use.
If she wanted to go faster, she was supposed to make this sign:


If she wanted to go slower, she was supposed to make this sign:


If everything was OK, she was supposed to make this sign:


Unfortunately, the OK sign was a little beyond what a four-year-old could do while being dragged around an Adirondack lake in an inner tube.
Even though everything was OK, this was the sign she made:

You have to click on this one to really appreciate it.

quick vacation report

We are back and I have to get to work.
We had no computer access for all but two days. Our cell phones only worked if you walked out on the end of the dock and held them up in the air (like we just didn't care).

Some of us cared more than others.

Just before vacation

We went ot a Columbus Crew game on the Saturday before we left for vacation.
Lucy met Santa who was apparently enjoying his time off.

Leaving for vacation

We head for Chateuagay and other parts unknown later today... I will try to post from the road - but who knows.
Meanwhile, I am into the G's in my alphabetical song listening project. This morning I heard "Get Right Some Day" from Martin Zellar, it contains one of my favorite country music lines of all time:
"My ex-girlfriends, they don't like me but they should.
'Cause I'm the reason, their new guy looks so good."

In other music news, I discovered the first A1 page I designed at the Marion Star - not great work but certainly servicable when you consider I had been here only a few weeks.

Notice the upper, left-hand corner of the page. That's the music player I bought six months later....kind of eerie.

More anagrams

Lucy Graser can be re-arranged to be:
Gray Ulcers , which I am imagining to be a one-woman broadway show starring Lucy using her stage name: Grace Surly


Or those two conjoined identical twin rascals from the TV show, "Buncombe County Bumpkins," Lucas Gerry (on the right) and Claus Gerry (on the left and slightly behind).

More on the movie cast

This looks like it is going to be a star-studded epic.
First, from Lena (who I saw in a crossword puzzle yesterday. The clue was Ken or Lena - the first answer to jump in my head was, "Burns" -it wasn't right. I had forgotten that Lena got married).
Anyway, here are her suggestions - she had choices so feel free to comment and pick one or the other

In the part of Lena either
Alicia Silverstone or Jennifer Aniston

If I knew what I was doing I would have resized these images, but I don't and can't or maybe just won't.

In the part of Jaime (Jaime, at least names that sound like Jaime but are spelled differently are starting to figure large in my life. I have to refer to a guy at work as Man Jamie to avoid confusion.)
Lena thinks Jaime (woman Jaime) should be played by either Jennifer Connelly or Courtney Cox


I know that Sandy Wall always thought Jaime would be played by Karen Allen



Here is what Melissa had to say about the cast of the movie

Tom, I am nominating Marilu Henner to play Tammy Jones in a cameo role
in the movie of your life.

David Hurand's role is key, and I think a
very hairy Robin Williams is best suited. The hair will cover up the
dissimilarities, but we needed a real actor to capture the essence of
Hurand.


Thanks Lena and Melissa.

Now we just have to get working on the script.

I see the sun coming up over the Franklin County Fair and an obviously hung-over Tom Graser, wearing black short pants, white button down shirt and bolo tie, walking through the fair grounds, where he obviously fell asleep behind the beer tent. He crosses the street and enters the office of the Malone Telegram where he sits down at his computer and starts writing. We see the letters coming up on the computer screen.
"Time is queer. Forty-five summers pass in the time it takes a looping fly ball to nestle in the pocket of a right fielder.
To the experienced batter it's an instant - the ball is caught the second it's hit.
To the rookie fielder it seems an eternity waiting for the ball to fall out of the lights."

That's an actual lead I wrote to a story my first year as a writer --- not sure if I would have gone that way today.

I think we could use text coming up on the computer as a device to jump back and forth through time. You know the old guy sits down and starts writing a story that takes us back in time and then the young guy sits down and starts writing and that springs us forward. How brilliantly cliche!

Music update

I thought I was up to the C's as I approached work yesterday - "Cassius Clay" as performed by The Gear Daddies was playing.
I was wrong. I was still in the B's. The name of the song is "Black Superman."
The song was written by Johnny Wakelin and originally performed by Johnny Wakelin & Kinshasa Band. I don't understand how an alt country combo from Austin, Minn. ended up recording it, but it was on their last gasp throw-away album "Can't Have Nothin' Nice."
Here are the lyrics:
This here's the story of Cassius Clay
Who changed his name to Muhammad Ali
He knows how to talk and he knows how to fight
And all the contenders were beat out of sight

Sing, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali
He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Mohammed, the black superman
Who calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

Now all you fight fans, you've got to agree
There ain't no flies on Muhammad Ali
He fills the arena wherever he goes
And everyone gets what they paid for

Muhammad, was known to have said
You watch me shuffle and I'll jab off your head
He moves like the black superman
And calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

He says I'm the greatest the worlds ever seen
The heavyweight champion who came back again
My face is so pretty you don't see a scar
Which proves I'm the king of the ring by far

Sing, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali
He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Mohammed, the black superman
Who calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

Sing, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali
He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Muhammad, the black superman
Who calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can

I'm Ali catch me if you can

My anagrams

Don't worry, I am getting to adding to the movie cast.
Until then here are some anagrams from my name


Smart Ogre (good name for a band)



A Germ Rots (a specialty store in the Grove Arcade perhaps)



Gear Storm (Air name for when I become a TV weather man)



Mort Rages (the political satire comedian)



Rags Metro (my handle for when I go homeless)



Gorse Tram (English punk band)



Roast Germ (entree at a vegetarian restaurant)