Mullets are among us

The mullet is alive and well in Philadelphia. This one was sighted at Sunday's Philadelphia Eagles game.

Check out this great mullet site.

Here is Billy Ray Cyrus singing "I want my mullet back."

Something funny for your Friday

Thursday Thing-along

I'm your boogie man,
that's what I am ...
I'm here to do,
whatever I can...

Want to look at the lyrics and sing along? Click on the picture at right.

Here's the official site for K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

Way Back When-sday

This is a picture of my Mammy (on the right) and Aunt Betty working on a quilt. They used to make quilts all the time. I can remember the bags of cut out pieces of fabric -- squares and triangles and rectangles -- Mammy had at her house. I also remember the closet full of quilts and blankets in the attic room. I used to love staying up in that room in the winter. Those quilts were so comforting to bundle up beneath.

The pattern they are working on in the picture above is called The Hole in the Barn Door, although it also has about 20 different names according to the 11th picture down on the right-hand side of this Web page. There are multiple variations of every pattern, many named something different depending on what part of the country they were made in.

I have a couple of quilts that were made by Mammy and her sisters. One of them I don't use. I'll take pictures of it later. And one of them I use all the time. I wrote about it a few years ago in a column I wrote for a newspaper. If you'd like to read it, click on the picture at right to enlarge it.

Living on a prayer

I was mowing the grass today and just barely missed chopping this praying mantis to bits. Don't get me wrong. I realize I probably kill a ton of things by mowing and walking and etc. I'm not a freak about killing insects accidentally. I just don't try to do it unless it's necessary (carpenter ants in the house, for example). So since I didn't hit this guy, I got my camera and came back out to get some video of him.

So for a little while today, I was thinking I actually like this insect. But then I watched this. Ouch.

Something funny for your Friday

From Late Night with Conan.

Thursday Thing-along

Learn more about Natalie Merchant here or see what askmen.com said here. Natalie Merchant was the voice of 10,000 Maniacs from 1981 until she started a solo career in 1993.

Want a Natalie Merchant song of your own?
How about an acoustic version of 'What's the matter here?"

Way Back When-sday

This is a picture from around 1969 of me kissing Stephen between his eyebrows as Stephen puckers up to kiss me. We are kissing with our eyes closed and that may help explain the awkward appearance of our kiss. I'm also holding a football, so it could just be that it's not a picture of a kiss but instead, is a stop motion action picture Mama snapped. A split second after this was taken I am running over Stephen and knocking him on his ass.... yeah, that's more like it.

Ouch.....

So driving home from work last night/this morning, I discovered I completely lose my ability to sing in key when it's storming. I have no problem whatsoever singing off key.




I should be singing with this group of Dutch Idols. I'd fit right in .....

Oh please ... This was pathetic

I'm not saying the rips about an "out of shape" Britney were called for -- she looks pretty damn fine if you ask most men -- but come on ... This Britney Spears performance at the MTV Awards is pitiful. She looks stoned.


The funniest videos are a click away

Something funny for your Friday

Happy 40th Stephen

My brother Stephen turns 40 today, giving our parents two sons in their 40s and two others in their 30s. In the picture at top, Stephen is the one in the back center with the overalls on. The picture is from 1970 and was taken at Stephen's third birthday party.


At right is a picture of how Stephen looked at one of last year's Eagles games.

Thursday Thing-along

This is the UC Men's Octet performing an a cappella version of the Bee Gees "Staying Alive."

Here is the Bee Gees version if you want to listen:

Lazy day around the house

At least I mowed the grass.

Way Back When-sday

I post this picture not because my pops (center) and my mama (back right) are in it. No, they are but background noise in this picture -- the purple pants, pinkish socks and ankle boots that are so prominently featured in the foreground are the true stars of this photograph. It must be the '70s (January 1973 to be exact according to the back of the picture). This is a picture of my parents at Aunt Connie and Uncle Bill's house (he's the other guy you can see a face of). Now they weren't really our aunt and uncle, just close friends of our parents so we called them that. I'm not sure who is wearing the purple pants, but I bet he would love this store.

You never know what you'll see

This is a picture of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter "Hollyhock" passing beneath the Chesapeake City Bridge on it's way from Baltimore, Md., back to its home of Port Huron, Mich. The Hollyhock was in Baltimore for a repair, according to this article.

Here's more about the Hollyhock, a sea going buoy tender.

Jeffrey in South Park

This is me as a character on South Park. I made it after seeing a link to a South Park character maker over at Mike's blog, The Worthless Hack.

To get a link to the site where you can create your own, click here and look beneath Mike's South Park character.

As a bonus, here's a 'tasty' South Park song ...

Cast your vote

Click on the photo to make it large enough to read. Click here for the photo on its original page.

...........

Cast a vote in the poll over to the right. I just want to make sure it works and give Kathleen a chance to see how one will look.

Something funny for your Friday

If you're one of the 1,500,000 plus people who have already seen this, I'm sorry. If you're not one of them, enjoy these two kids on the intercom at Wal-Mart.

Thursday Thing-along

I admit I don't know any of the words to this song, so for me it's more of a watch and hum-along. But still, I just love this song and the video is so smooth.



The song is Virtual Insanity from Jamiroquai.

Way Back When-sday

At the top is a picture of Mama that I'm guessing is of her in her teens (late 1950s to early 1960s). She is putting records on a portable record player. For those of you who don't know what a record is, picture a black CD, but larger, with grooves.

Click on the 45 record at right to see what song Mama was putting on.



Want to make your own 45 or 78 record? Then click here.

Draft day for Fantasy Football

We had the draft for our fantasy football league on Sunday. This is a short clip from that featuring the son of our host and hostess as he puts on his favorite Eagles hat. I'm posting this through blogger's new video upload. If it doesn't look or work as good as others I use (such as Vimeo), I'll change it.

Something funny for your Friday

Something of my own, this time ... It's a short clip of a co-worker cleaning out the refrigerator.




Here's where I posted about the fridge Nazi before. Kevin's a great guy ... funny as hell.

Thursday Thing-along

Want to see the lyrics so you can sing along? Click here.

For more about Taylor Swift, check her Web site or pay a visit to her myspace page.

Way Back When-sday

This is my seventh-grade picture -- braces and all. It was October 1978 and I was attending Grifton Elementary School in Grifton, N.C. Those were the old school braces -- the kind that if you had them, you really worried about kissing anybody. You especially worried if the other person also had braces -- no matter if the urban legends weren't true. My braces didn't do me a hell of a lot of good. Maybe it's because I didn't really wear the retainer the way I was supposed to afterward and I didn't always use the rubberbands when I was supposed to.

Anyway, here's a little more about 1978.

And for your listening pleasure, here's one of the No. 1 songs of 1978 according to Billboard:

Two kinds of bridges

I took these short clips while we were taking the scenic route back from my parents house over the weekend.

• Go here for photos from the dedication of the rebuilt Smith Bridge.
• More information about Smith Bridge is here.
• Go here for information on the Chesapeake City Bridge over the C&D Canal.
• For information on the C&D Canal, click here.

Summer Music in The Park

One of the great things about living in a small but active town is the neat little things you can do by just walking down the street. Every Sunday in the late afternoon during the summer, the Cecil County Arts Council sponsors a free performance in Chesapeake City's Pell Gardens. The park is on the canal and mooring basin and is only three blocks or so from home. This Sunday, the Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition is playing. If you like bluegrass at all, you can download three of their songs for free here courtesy of the Washington Post.

Last week it was a solo act. Here's a clip of his performance.

Something funny for your Friday

This is about six minutes long, but worth it if you have the time.

Thursday Thing-along

I can't help but to sing along with this song whenever I hear it.
I dare you to try not to sing a single word.



Little ditty about Jack and Diane
Two American kids growin' up in the heartland
Jackie's gonna be a football star
Diane debutante backseat of Jackie's car

Way Back When-sday

Let me introduce you to one of the pairs of pants that earned me the fourth-grade nickname of Chubby Checkers. These are the red and white ones. Hard to miss, aren't they?

Anyway, this is a picture of my best friend David Isner and me on a school field trip to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, N.C. I can't remember the name of the dweeb butting into the shot and waving like a geek. But who am I to talk about geeks. Look at that camera pack on my belt.

This is the year our parents sent us to Bethel Christian Academy, a private school in Kinston, N.C., because they didn't like the fourth-grade teacher we were going to have at our public school in Grifton, N.C. The experience turned me off of private schools, especially religious-oriented private schools -- but we managed to survive.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

I took this picture a short while ago while sitting in the back yard looking at the sky. I left the shutter open for a minute hoping to catch part of the Perseids meteor shower. No such luck. Maybe later I'll get something like one of these. But I doubt it.

Something funny for your Friday

Thursday Thing-along

I took a break for a few days.



Check out Olivia Newton-John's official site here.

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

This video clip is of a house in Delaware right before crossing into Maryland on the way to South Chesapeake City. It seems like more and more stuff is there every time I go past it. Boats, campers, gazebos and piles and piles of stuff. I can't tell if any of it is for sale or if it's just yard ornamentation. Maybe it's an artist's home and he or she is making a statement by using the trappings of the modern world as others may use a pink flamingo or possibly one of those gnomes. Who knows....

Butterfly kisses

There was lots of action on the butterfly bushes today.

Something funny for your Friday

Sorry. Y'all are on your own today. Maybe you all can post something funny for me to look at later today. I'd appreciate that.

Jeffrey

P.S. Here's a little song to go with the picture. Have a great weekend.

Thursday Thing-along

Alison Krauss sings along to some James Taylor.

Way Back When-sday

This picture is from 1970. I'm almost 4 years old here and I was trusted to hold Russell. He's probably a month or so old in this picture.

Ant Music

Here's another video of crawling ants. This one is of a bunch of ants and ant eggs in an umbrella that had fallen on the ground before a torrential downpour went through the area.

I love my brothers

I love my brothers ... and I feel extraordinarily special to have a family that is as close as mine is to each other. I am so very thankful for ALL of my brothers...

Finally.....

Haircuts are a great pick me up. I've been trying to get to the barbershop for the past couple of weeks and haven't been able to make it in time... until today. The picture on the left is from last week before my new cut. I like my barber. She's full of jokes and remembers me and things about me, even when I haven't been in weeks. But this guy didn't have such a great experience.

Meltdown Monday

Total loss last week was three pounds, an improvement over the week before. I'm on vacation this week -- a vacation at home -- so I hope I don't go and put it all back on by eating big meals, drinking cold beers and sitting around lazily on the porch.
Progress:
07/09/07: 284 pounds
07/30/07: 274 pounds
Total loss: 10 pounds

Maybe I should try exercising to this guy's little fitness routine:



I watch him and he just makes me want to dance .... Trust me, watch the whole thing when you have time. It's worth it.

Something funny for your Friday ..

Thursday Thing-along

"Formerly known as" or not, Prince is still one hell of a musician.

Way Back When-sday

The picture at top is me in the eighth grade and I'm leaning over a black case with my clarinet in it. Granddaddy gave me the money for this clarinet. I can't remember if he paid for the whole thing or just part of it, but I do know he gave money for it. At right is a picture I just took of me holding the same clarinet today. I always hoped I'd be able to play it like Benny Goodman. That didn't happen, but I did manage to earn first chair in the band. Maybe I'll buy a new reed for it to see if I can still play it at all.

Anyway, here's a bit of Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee for you to give you an idea of what it should sound like:



Any other closet band geeks out there?

Here kitty, kitty, kitty

You've heard of The Cat in the Hat. Well, this is The Cat in the Bag. This is Parker taking a nap in a Vera Bradley bag of Natalie's. The bag matches Parker's eyes -- she's so fashionable. Parker is not one of those cats that typically doesn't have to find a hiding place to get away or take a nap. She usually has no problem just splaying herself wherever she feels comfortable.

Movie Mashup

I haven't made one of these in a while... Good luck with your guesses. There are 10 movies here in under a minute.

Meltdown Monday

Week No. 2 of the new Meltdown Monday is down .... I lost one pound this week, but I forgot to weigh until after lunch so it may have been more. I've got to get back in the routine of weighing at the same time.
I decided not to run the picture every week. Instead I'll do a monthly comparison between the shots from the start and ones from the current month. That way, hopefully, there will be a difference to see.

Progress:
07/09/07: 284 pounds
07/23/07: 277 pounds
Total loss: 7 pounds

Dancing bees

The bees just absolutely love the flowers in the bed at the back corner of the yard. I took some pictures and video of them today at work gathering pollen. I especially like this picture with one bee on the flower and another bee in flight in the background. Click on it to see it big. I'll try to post more later. In the video at the top, I used the new Paul McCartney song because it seems to fit with the bees dancing back and forth with each other between the flowers. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Up on the roof ....

The roofing guys were here shortly after 8 this morning to redo the front porch roof. It's a rolled roof with a slight slope. The picture is after they have put down the torchable roofing (they used a torch to melt/adhere the pieces together. They'll come back later to paint it silver. The old roof developed a leak over the past couple of months and some water had made its way through the ceiling of the porch. The good news is the roofers said the boards and joists are solid. It's costing about $700 but is worth it to have someone else do it since roofing is not one of my strong points -- to say the least.

My brother Stephen said he'll help when it's time to put down new tongue-and-groove boards on the porch flooring. That should be soon.

Something funny for your Friday

An experiment ...

Flung apart by a sudden and unexpected upheaval of the world beneath them,
they reach out blindly, eyes closed tight against the pain.
A familiar touch or smell or voice would do wonders right now.
Desperate and lonely -- they call into the darkness around them and wait for answers.
Here I am. Where are you?
Here I am. Where are you?

The answers never come ...
Here I am. Where are you?
No answer ...
Here I am. Where are you?
No answer ...

But each holds on to hope ...
Here I am. Where are you?

Each holds on to the past ...
Here I am. Where are you?

Each holds on to their yesterday.
Here I am. Where are you?

Because yesterday, everything was normal.
Here I am. Where are you?
Here I am. Where are you?

They hold on to hope ...
Because yesterday ... everything was normal.

...................

Moonlight .... feels right

I was going through the computer files cleaning out old video clips and photos and other things I didn't want to keep and came across this clip. I shot it a couple of months ago when I decided to stretch out in the grass in the backyard to relax and noticed there were clouds moving in front of a full moon. I added some music to make it a bit more interesting.

Thursday Thing-along

Just trying to spice things up a bit. The words are printed karaoke style on this video, so sing along -- if you dare.



Here's hoping any reunion is short-lived.

Way Back When-sday

This picture was taken of us in the back yard of our home in Grifton, N.C. According to Pops' note on the back, it was the summer of 1969.

Stephen is using a watering can to sprinkle water onto the ground and his feet. I'm using a hose to keep filling up his watering can when he runs out of water. You can tell by the puddle I am standing in that there was no drought restrictions on water use. You can also tell by how white I am that those parts of my body may never before have been exposed to the sun. Either that or I've been coated in zinc oxide.

Here's what else was going on in 1969.

Meltdown Monday

Week No. 1 of the new Meltdown Monday is down .... and so is my weight. I lost six pounds this week, mainly through a combination of eating fewer calories and healthier food, drinking more water and working in the yard and sweating quite a bit. It's a promising start. I'm not sure if I should run the picture of me every week or just once a month. What do y'all think?



Progress:
07/09/07: 284 pounds
07/16/07: 278 pounds
Total loss: 6 pounds

Fun at the pool ... the remix

A remixed version of some of the clips from last weekend at Russell and Wendy's house.

Autumn loses another tooth

I opened up my e-mail today to find pictures from my brother Russell. The pictures are of my niece Autumn and the widening gap in her front teeth. If you remember, she lost her first tooth last Sunday. She lost her second tooth on Saturday. My how things happen so fast.

Here's a fun little Web site to help you learn more about teeth and dentists.

He is happiest ...

When I bought this house, there were some old windows in the cellar from when some had to be replaced on the side of the house. The front windows are pretty much the originals from the mid to late 1800's. We kept the windows, just in case, and at some point I saw something in a magazine about alternative uses for old windows. This is my interpretation of one of those uses. It hangs in the renovated guest bedroom. I was reminded of it by this post on Keep the Coffee coming, one of my favorite music blogs.

Here's the link to the main page of Keep the Coffee Coming.

Something funny for your Friday

It's not all that funny really, but it is kind of cute. The funny one I wanted to post was so adult oriented, I chose not to. But it was hilarious -- trust me.

Thursday Thing-along

I love a good rain storm ... and Sade.

• Here is her official site.
• Here is her wikipedia listing.

Way Back When-sday

This picture is from our vacation to the Land of Oz, a theme park in the mountains of North Carolina. This is from October 1970. On the left is our friend David Isner, I'm in the middle and my brother Stephen is on the right. Russell would have still been too little to sit up. The Land of Oz was a hit when it opened in 1970, with over 400,000 people going to see the Yellow Brick Road and the trees with faces. In 1980, the park closed to everyday tourists but it has found a new life today.

Watching the Wizard of Oz was a family tradition. We always knew what night it was coming on and we were allowed to stay up late to watch it. The flying monkeys would always freak me out.

Anyway, here's an interesting Wizard of Oz site.

And here's a little music semi-related to this post:

An afternoon at the pool

My brother Russell and his wife, Wendy, had a little cookout at their house Sunday afternoon and their pool proved popular. At top is some video of the goings on. To the right is a mosaic of a burst of pictures of Russell attempting a flip. Click on it to see it bigger. My favorite is the one with his head and arms in the water but everything else sticking out.

Tooth fairy alert

Autumn lost her first tooth on Sunday afternoon.

Meltdown Monday ... It's back

According to the new scales, I weigh 284 pounds. That would mean I gained nearly 40 pounds since stopping Meltdown Monday a couple of months ago. I have not gained 40 pounds, but did re-gain some of what I had lost. It's just a difference in how these scales weigh and how the other, now broken one, weighed. Anyhow, these are the scales I'll go by starting today as I begin anew my Meltdown Mondays and my quest for a happier, healthier me. I'll try to share with you my successes and failures.

I'll take you along on my attempts to exercise and give you the chance to give me tips and pointers. Perhaps some of you have great recipe ideas you'd like to share. And of course, if any of you want to play along, that would be great. The more the merrier...

Here's a little inspirational music:

Drinking Bird....

This is one of those drinking birds. My grandmom had one that I talked about so Mama and Pops gave me this one a couple of Christmases ago.

Here is how a drinking bird works.

Meltdown Monday set to make its return

I plan to start Meltdown Monday fresh this coming Monday and the above steak-stuffed pizza was my gift to my stomach Friday night. Life gets complicated sometimes -- for all of us -- and we just have to stop everything for a bit, gain a fresh focus, choose paths and attempt to move ahead. Since this is the simplest thing I can do right now, I'm making it the first step to regaining control of my life.

.....

Although I know I've re-gained some of what I lost, the other scales (now broken) were either off or these are. Either way, these new scales are the ones I will go by starting Monday. I'll start at a fresh weight with a fresh perspective and hope to once again start progressing toward a goal of a happier, healthier me.

Something funny for your Friday

Thursday Thing-along

A little Joe Jackson for you.

Driving to the airport in Philly

For all you who have never been to the East Coast, this is what a drive from Chesapeake City, Md., to the Philadelphia International Airport looks like.... Sped up, of course.

Way Back When-sday

In the photo at top from the summer of 1971, Russell (left) has a beater, Stephen (center) has a spoon and I have a beater. We are all enjoying licking the cake batter off our own utensils. But if you click on the photo at right, you'll notice that when I take time to lick some of the batter off my fingers, Stephen grabs my beater and starts stealing my batter. Licking the beaters -- and better yet, the bowl -- was one of childhood's most joyous moments. Despite the warnings, we never got sick from it.

My favorites were the cream cheese icing for carrot cake (my favorite cake) and the batter for homemade chocolate chip cookies.

'Now you try'

My niece Autumn tries to teach me how to do a cartwheel.

Emily, another of my nieces, had also tried to teach me.

But I'm holding off for now because doing cartwheels can get you in trouble.

Grillmaster

Pops puts some spices on the chicken and ribs we cooked for Canal Day. I drank too much too early -- as usual on Canal Day -- so there aren't a bunch of pictures. I'll post a few more later.

UPDATED: OK, I may as well get this over with. This is a picture of me asleep/passed out -- whatever -- in a chair on Canal Day afternoon. I'm not sure who put the flower behind my ear. At least they could have straightened up my hair or something. Anyway, this is obviously one of the pictures Oyster Girl and anonymous (I know who you are, BG) wanted to see. Especially since BG sent it to me. There are others, but this pretty much says it all. I had a good time.