2014/03/02 15:00 Another round of the Tiki game.

2014/03/01 23:00 Dinner tonight at Chili's with Tristan aka "Big Money"

2014/03/08 20:00 Alice made a birthday cake for her Uncle Michael.

2014/02/21 21:00 Sean and I went to Destiny USA today. Went to the World of Beer first.

2014/02/22 18:30 Playing Monopoly Junior with a little princess this afternoon.

2014/02/28 18:00 I made a Tiki board game. It is a drinking game. I tested it out on Tristan and Alice. They loved playing it. We played with fruit juice.

2014/02/09 10:00 I went to the CNY Brewfest at the NY State fairgrounds yesterday. Sean and I went together and Karen was our designated driver. The event this year was moved from the horticultural building to the dairy building. I’m not sure which was the better venue. On the plus side for the dairy building it was bigger and so it was easier to get around. It is a barn where the cows stay during the fair and it was a little chilly. Either the place warmed up or it was the beers but it wasn’t chilly by the time we left.

2014/02/07 11:00 February is indeed the bleakest of months. There is nothing redeeming about February. We had our second big snowfall of this Winter season a few days ago. We got 8 to 9 inches of snow and it has been very cold. I wanted to take a trip to Pennsylvania this week but the forecasted storm scared me off. Sean and I were going to Punxsutawney to see Phil the groundhog. Someday I want to go to Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day. Not this year because Groundhog Day was on a Sunday and I would rather go when the holiday falls during the week. Groundhog Day this year was also Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday this year was actually quite a bit short of ‘Super’. The game was a blow out. The game was not exciting at all. Best part of the game was Broadway Joe and the coin toss. Joe had on a fur coat that looked like it was left over from the disco era. He was probably drunk and flipped the coin before anyone had called heads or tails. The ref tried to stop him, couldn’t, but managed to catch the coin before it hit the ground. The best headline the next day was, “Joe Namath comes out of retirement to throw one more interception”. I have not been getting as much done as I would like. I am trying to get my garage set up as a shop where I can actually get some work done. I have been spending too much time moving the old website over to the new platform and not enough time posting new stuff. One interesting thing I noticed in moving the old website to the new platform is that I used to write more than I do now. I post more pictures now but write less. I am going to make a real effort to write more in the coming year. The one thing I don’t have with the new site that I had with the old site is a counter for the traffic. I don’t know how active the new site is. I haven’t promoted the new site at all. The old site, that I haven’t updated since last November is still getting about two hundred hits a month. I think that Google has an app for measuring web traffic and I will have to look into that for the new site. All in all I am very discouraged and just looking forward to being able to stand in the sunshine when Spring is finally here.

Alice having fun.

Tristan loves going to Chuck E Cheese.

Always a fun time at Dunkin Donuts.

Tristan stole my hat.

Time travel? Or just a brief visit to another dimension? There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone.

Spacesuit.

Alice in the spacesuit.

Flight simulator.

2014/01/11 23:00 Robert and I took the kids to Wonderworks in the Destiny USA mall today.

2014/01/12 20:00 We had a busy day today. First was breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Then later we met Theresa and her kids at Chuck E Cheese.

View from our room.

Who's that little girly in the window?

Lord Vader joined us for breakfast.

2014/01/05 14:00 We are five days into the New Year. I went to the gym Thursday and Friday last week. I feel pretty good. I read where psychologists that study such things say that it can take over twenty attempts at something to establish a habit. I am determined to go to the gym on a regular basis and to get healthier. The regular TV season was interrupted by the holidays and so Karen and I binge watched the first season of “True Blood” on DVD. I enjoyed it but more than one person has warned me that the show wasn’t as good after season two. We’ll see. Tristan’s birthday was yesterday; Saturday the 4th. We met Adison at Wendy’s for lunch. She is a good aunt. After lunch we went and checked in at Embassy Suites in East Syracuse for an overnight. Tristan had never stayed in a hotel before and it was something he really wanted to do. They have an indoor pool and hot tub there which was nice to have use of on such a cold and wintery day. We had pizza and wings in the room, birthday cake that Karen had made, and then opened presents. This morning we had a hot breakfast at the hotel and hit the pool one more time.

This latest iteration of my rants and rambles will be much like past versions. The key components will be unchanged. There still may be too much information shared and I am still most definitely weird as all get out. And still boring. I believe in free will. If you choose to read this after being warned then it is your fault and I take no responsibility.

The rants, rambles, and ravings continue just on a new web platform. Thank you Go Daddy for allowing this hot mess to live in cyber-space.

2014/03/05 14:00 Contractors are due here tomorrow to put a door here to the back yard.

2014/03/01 14:00 Alice fell asleep with the I-pad. It is an I-pad nap.

2014/03/09 22:00 We celebrated Michael's birthday today.

2014/02/02 19:00 I took the kids to Webster’s Pond to feed the ducks and geese today. It was cold and we were the only ones there to feed the birds. Usually they give us cups of corn but I think since we were the only ones there they gave us a bucket. Alice likes to stand on the bench and the ducks and geese won’t come up on the bench. There were some pigeons there today and they aren’t so bashful. They came right up on the bench with her. She screamed like a little girl.

Chocolate chip pancakes at the IHOP

2014/02/01 13:00 Today is the first day of February. February is the last of the Winter months. We are two thirds of the way through meteorological Winter. I am getting pretty anxious waiting for Spring to happen. We went to IHOP for breakfast this morning. Tristan really likes IHOP.

2014/01/19 23:30 I went to Target today with Batman. Batman was looking to get a new utility belt.

2014/01/13 21:00 Adison went to a destination wedding in Jamaica. You know how they have those T-Shirts that say, "so and so went to someplace and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt"? Well, I didn't even get a T-Shirt. What I did get was a picture of Adison and the bride, Val, wearing my Patron of the Tiki Arts shirts. Very cool.

2014/01/09 23:00 A lot of the stuff my grandson Tristan says makes me smile. We were going somewhere and there were police cars everywhere. Fremont road was barricaded. We stopped at the Red Apple gas station and the attendant told me that the M&T bank across the street had been robbed. After getting some gas I got back in the van and told everyone that the bank had been robbed. The robber fled on foot and cut through the houses behind the bank and that’s why Fremont road was barricaded. Tristan asked me, “Pop, did the robber have a chain saw?” I thought that’s a really odd question. The boy must be playing too many video games if he imagines someone robbing a bank with a chain saw. I told him no, the robber didn’t have a chain saw. Tristan then asked, “How did he cut through the houses?” Too funny. A few weeks ago he was telling us some of the stuff he had learned in school. They were studying temperature and they have a thermometer in class. He said their thermometer had Venus in it. I said he probably meant mercury but he said no, he was pretty sure it was Venus. One of those planets.

It was Tristan's cake but Alice had to have a turn blowing out a candle.

Sweet little girl in a great big bed.

Birthday lunch with Aunt Adison

2014/01/01 10:00 Happy New Year. That time of year is upon us once again. The fresh start we’ve needed has arrived. The ability to press the re-start button is here now. It is time to wipe the slate clean and start over. After reflecting on the year that has passed we make plans and resolutions for the New Year. We have the best of intentions and we don’t let past failures and inadequacies dim our optimism. Or at least those are our intentions. The year that was, 2013, was an okay year. It was my first full year in retirement. That was all good. I wish I had accomplished more and it is my good fortune to have 2014 waiting for me to do just that. My resolutions for this coming year will be much like past years. Perhaps this year I will be more successful. In the coming year I will taste and drink more rum. I will make more super delicious Tiki cocktails. I will visit the gym on a regular basis and get myself to a healthier place. I will pursue the things that make me happy and that give my life purpose. I will help family and friends. I will be a better citizen. And I will make things that I will call art.

khan tiki mon's rants and rambles v.8.00

Moai T-shirt. Shirt by Robert Jimenez. Location shoot today at Gordon Biersch Brewpub in Destiny USA.

2014/02/24 14:00 Fun at Onondaga Lake Parkway yesterday morning. Tristan ran the Moose Mile, a kids fun run, and Adison ran a half-marathon.

2014/03/14 23:00 We had dinner at Chili's tonight.

2014/02/16 23:00 The Sub Rosa session number 8 with Amanda Rogers and Heather Maloney.

My lovely daughter and I. She was very excited to be included in a Daily T post.

Dennis, Ellen, and Adison.

The Otter's home was all ice - no otters

At the studio. With Amanda Rogers, singer, songwriter, pianist, artist, muse, and hostess for the Sub Rosa Sessions. And with Jeremy Johnston, owner/engineer, “driving stick” on the new control panel for another thoroughly enjoyable evening – The Sub Rosa Sessions at SubCat Studios.

The trio known as Rabbit in the Rye

First up was Joshua Scott Carter

Sharing. It always makes me happy to see the kids getting along so well.

Spiderman likes to put stuff in the cart.

Alice and Danielle playing at Chuck E Cheese.

2014/01/16 23:00 I got a new ride for my bride today. It’s a 2010 Jeep Patriot. Karen said that she wanted a hatchback. After a few false starts I realized she didn’t want a hatchback but rather an SUV. I was sitting in the office at Sun Auto in Chittenango when they took the Jeep in on trade. We made what I thought was a really good deal and I called Karen. She said, “I don’t want a Jeep”. I asked her to at least look at it. We drove to Chittenango after bowling and she said, “Oh, I love this!”

2014/01/18 22:30 I frequently go shopping with a super hero. Today I was at Wegmans with Spiderman.

2014/01/07 17:00 I went to the gym today and had an interesting conversation with a guy I met there. I go to the gym during the day and so there are a lot of older or retired people there. This guy said he was retiring the end of the month and then was leaving on a European vacation. The vacation was to start twelve days after his retirement. He said that was the soonest he could get the vacation scheduled for after his retirement date. He said he wanted to start the vacation as soon as possible because he didn't want his wife going to Europe with some other guy. I asked if that was a problem; other guys? He laughed and explained it like this. He said he knew guys that had retired and they sat around doing nothing for a while. Then they died and their widows went to Europe with some new guy they hooked up with. He said, "life is short and you never know when a slip or fall or something else unforeseen is going to take it all away. Go to Europe while you can."

Photos by Jack Bocchino.

2014/02/18 23:00 Sledding today at Fremont.

Brought the photobombers into the picture.

We got photobombed.

A picture with Zane and Mike.

Kind of a duck hot tub thing going on. We always have a good time at the zoo.

We started the morning with a trip to Dunkin Donuts. Alice made a friend.

After Dunkin Donuts we made a visit to the zoo. It was a very cold day so we mostly stayed indoors. We did venture out to see the penguins but it must have been to cold even for the penguins as they were off exhibit.

Another great evening at SubCat Studios for the Sub Rosa Sessions. Tonight was Joshua Scott Carter and Rabbit in the Rye.

Adison and Val are Patrons of the Tiki Arts at Gran Bahia Principe, Runaway Bay, Jamaica.

2014/01/25 22:30

All cozy on the couch with their tablets.

Fun with bubbles.

2014/01/20 14:00 Alice goofing around today