2015/03/29 10:30 Last week I met my wife for lunch. She said I looked like a homeless person. She didn’t mean it in a good way. In 2010 the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood had a fashion show where models wore frostbitten makeup and carried bedrolls while pushing shopping carts down the runway. This was part of the fashion style known as ‘homeless chic’. My wife was suggesting that I just looked like an actual homeless person. After lunch I did something I have never done before. I went to a stylist and had my beard and mustache professionally trimmed, groomed, and styled. I actually clean up pretty nice if I do say so myself. I think I will see my stylist Oriana on a regular basis from now on.
2015/02/22 18:00 One of Karen's co-workers, Shane, had a birthday party for their little one and we took Tristan and Alice.
2015/02/15 11:00 Breakfast at the IHOP in Dewitt this morning.
2015/03/28 15:30 The doctor makes house calls. Our personal physician in Hello Kitty scrubs. Warning: every exam ends with a shot.
Dog cousins.
2015/02/21 Tristan and I went to the SU vs. Pitt basketball game today. I told Tristan he could wear my Otto the Orange hat. He declined. He said, “Pop, that hat is really pretty stupid”. My grandson is dissing on my fashion sense; or I guess lack thereof. SU’s shooting was abysmal today and in my opinion that’s the main reason they lost the game. Tristan and I went to the men’s room at halftime and it was mobbed. After we washed up we were trying to exit through the crowd. Tristan spied the trash can some ten or fifteen feet in front of us and he looked at me and said, can I? I said, sure, go for it – shoot! Tristan released the wadded up paper towels in a high arc and they swished right into the trash can. Some guy behind me started yelling that that was the best shooting he had seen all day. “Suit that kid up and get him on the court!” The rest room erupted in applause. There was some guy sitting behind us that I have never seen there before. He appeared to be probably close to 70 years of age. He was hilarious. At one point he asked if Tristan was my son. I said that no he was my grandson. He said, “you don’t look old enough to be a grandfather”. I said, “thanks”. He said, “I was lying.”
After the parade dinner at the Olive Garden.
Alice got very involved.
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Snack time; cupcakes with blue frosting.
Turtle story time.
Just some of the random people that asked to have their picture taken with me.
2015/01/30 23:30 Karen and I went to a going away party for one of her co-workers; Dennis. Dennis and my daughter are also friends so Adison and Mark were at the party as well. The party was at Small Plates. That’s a restaurant downtown in Armory Square.
2015/01/11 23:30 I went to the SU game tonight. Sat in the endzone with my daughter. SU beat FSU and is now 3-0 in ACC conference play. Saw the biggest Orange finger I have ever seen.
Adison came by Saturday night and brought dinner. We ate in the room.
2015/01/08 18:00 Adison and Mark got a dog. They got a puppy. I was tasked today with some dog-sitting. I went to their condo and let the dog out of the crate. We played for a little bit.
Tristan and Alice were some of the only children at the party and they managed to keep themselves entertained with their electronic ‘devices’. When we were leaving I had to scold Alice for trying to descend the stairs while playing on her Kindle.
2015/01/04 23:30 Tristan woke up this morning on his birthday and had left-over birthday cake for breakfast. He opened presents and then in the afternoon we went to Nibsy’s for a surprise birthday party for my friend Sean.
After dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse we came home and had Tristan’s birthday cake. His birthday is tomorrow but we did his cake this evening.
2015/01/04 09:30 So, this happened eight years ago. Happy Birthday Tristan!
2015/01/03 23:00 We went to the Spaghetti Warehouse tonight for our annual Tennant-Redmond Christmas dinner. I had my annual photo taken. Every year I have my photo taken in the same place wearing the same shirt. I only wear this shirt once a year.
Goodbye to Lights on the Lake for this Christmas season. And so the Christmas season for 2014 comes to an end.
2015/01/02 23:30 Robert and I took Tristan and Alice to see Lights on the Lake. I think this was either the last weekend or the next to last weekend. The festive holiday display will be retired until next year.
2015/01/01 11:00 Happy New Year to one and all. Karen and I spent an uneventful New Year’s Eve. We just watched a little TV and I turned on the networks at 11:45 to watch the ball drop in Times Square.
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. I am probably still boring but we are starting a new year and one can be filled with hope? Read on dear reader but proceed with all due caution. This journey that you have chosen, of your own free will, is fraught with danger and peril at every turn and I can make no guarantees as to your safety.
The rants, rambles, and ravings roll on.
khan tiki mon's Rants and rambles v.9.00
2015/02/19 10:00
2015/03/21 23:00 Dinner at Ichiban.
2015/03/21 11:00 Earlier today waiting for Tristan to get his haircut.
2015/03/22 11:00 Breakfast this morning at The Hen House. Enjoying pancakes and bacon with 'Big Money'.
2015/02/13 18:00
Silver dollar pancakes and lots of bacon.
Winter is tough. Things get ravaged in the cold and ice. Spring is a time when we venture out to see what survived the Winter and what didn't. Our pool did not survive the Winter. This was our second pool and this one had surpassed the expected lifetime. My wife wants to get another pool. I would be happy with a hot tub. The pool is sure to win out.
Brego likes surveying her kingdom from atop the snow mountain.
2015/02/19 14:00 I am going on a 3 hour cruise with Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island) on my birthday. Just got my ticket.
Feeding the ducks and geese.
2015/03/22 18:00 Webster's Pond today.
Just hanging out at the zoo.
We walked around the mall today and Tristan found a giant Mario.
2015/02/08 16:00
Visiting the anacondas with our snake book.
2015/02/07 18:00 I took the kids to zoo camp today. I stayed with Alice who had a half day. Tristan had all day camp. The subject of the camp today was turtles. Alice likes turtles but she really likes snakes. She has a book about snakes. She brought her snake book with her. After her camp was over the instructor, who had been told by Alice how much Alice liked snakes, took us into the back room. It was just the instructor, Alice, and me. The teacher pulled out a ball python, maybe two feet long, for Alice to see. I thought, well, this is the end of Alice liking snakes. I was wrong. Alice petted the python and after we left the back room she asked if we could get her a pet snake. Alice and I hung out in the zoo while we waited for Tristan’s camp to end. We looked at the anacondas and the other snakes in the zoo.
2015/01/31 23:30 Sean and I went to the annual Central NY Brewfest at the New York State Fairgrounds today. We usually go to the earlier session but this year we went to the later one. I wore my big black Oktoberfest Munchen hat. It was a big hit. I must have had at least thirty requests to be in people’s photos and selfies. Too funny.
2015/01/11 23:00 We spent this weekend at the Embassy Suites hotel right near our house. I guess you could call it a ‘staycation’. Karen says I can’t call it that because I’m always on vacation now anyways. Last year for Tristan’s birthday we spent a night at Embassy Suites. He had so much fun that he asked to spend two nights this year. Friday night the kids were in the hot tub, or whirlpool. I decided to join them. There were some warnings on the sign by the whirlpool. It stated you shouldn’t use the hot tub if you had one of the conditions listed. Elderly? I do belong to AARP. Heart disease? I did have a heart attack. High or low blood pressure? I do take medication to control my blood pressure. Under the influence of alcohol? Sometimes, but I think I am beyond the influence of rum. Pregnancy? Well that one for sure didn’t apply so I decided it was safe to take a dip in the hot water. I stepped into the whirlpool but I missed the steps. My right foot scraped the side of the stairs and I pitched headfirst into the tub. My right hand had instinctively tried to break my fall and it crashed hard into the submerged concrete seat. I thought for a little while that I might have broken my big toe and my thumb. But, after sitting in the tub and relaxing for a while, all was well.
'Bob the builder' balloon.
2015/03/18 14:00
Hibachi!!
2015/02/10 17:00 Winnie came to visit today. Winnie and Brego played in the snow.
2015/02/28 Karen and I are traveling from southern Illinois back home to upstate NY next week. We are planning on staying over in Columbus Ohio so we can have dinner and drinks at the Grass Skirt Tiki Room. Sent a shout out to any friends in the area to please join us; Tuesday night March 3rd.
2015/03/29 14:30 Because of a few requests I am going to post before and after pictures. In the before pictures it is proposed that I look like either a.) a terrorist b.) the Unabomber c.) Grizzly Adams or d.) an actual homeless person. In the after photo, where my new stylist Oriana has provided me with an amazing coiffure, I look like a civilized member of society. Maybe. I will leave it to the viewer to discern which is the before photo and which is the after.
2015/02/09 14:00 Alice was rockin' the animal print thing today.
2015/03/14 15:00 I was at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Syracuse today with the grandkids. People marching in the parade were throwing beads to the onlookers. They were throwing a strand here and a strand there. Then they spied my cute little Alice and they marched over and dropped a couple hundred bead strands on her. Tristan asked why did she get so many more beads than anyone else at the parade.
It is a most awesome hat.
2015/02/16 18:00 Playing in the snow today.
2015/03/27 15:00 Just a lazy day today.
2015/02/14 23:00 Valentine’s Day. The guys ask Roger to hang out at the bar and watch the game. He can’t he says because the wife has something planned. Later that night the guys are at the bar when Roger walks in. What’s up? they ask. Thought you couldn’t make it. Well, he says, the wife has been reading that “50 Shades of Gray” book. I get home and she’s dressed super sexy. She takes me into the bedroom and asks me to handcuff her to the bed and put a blindfold on her. She says, “do whatever you want”. “So, here I am!”.
I went to the Duke game today with Michelle.
2015/03/08 23:30 Last night I was at the Carrier Dome again but it wasn’t for SU basketball. It was Monster Truck Jam time. I took my grandson and granddaughter. Tristan has been to the Carrier Dome before for SU basketball games. On the way to the Dome last night he said that he bet the SU basketball players and fans were sad that the monster trucks had destroyed their basketball court. But, as he said, they probably didn’t have much choice since you really can’t argue with monster trucks – they do what they want. I didn’t try to explain to Tristan that the SU basketball players and fans have more to be sad about (as in the NCAA sanctions). We got an early start on the way to monster truck madness and it’s a good thing we did. We sat in traffic for forty-five minutes waiting to park at Sky Top. There were shuttle buses that ran from Sky Top to the Dome. Once we were parked and walking to where the buses were Alice announced that she had to pee. My heart sank because I knew there was no way she was going to make it on the bus all the way to the Dome and through security without having an accident. As we got closer to the bus stop I saw there were four port-a-potty’s. By this time it was dark outside and so it was pitch black inside the potty. Alice was wearing a frilly dress with leggings and it was quite the ordeal to get them off in the dark. I was really afraid that I was going to drop her into the stinky abyss but we survived the very cold and dark potty. Before we had left the house Tristan had asked for a monster truck T-shirt; specifically a Gravedigger T-shirt. He wanted to wear the shirt at the Monster Truck Jam. He wore only a wife beater and coat in anticipation of the shirt to come. As soon as we were in the Dome the first thing we did was get the shirt and Tristan promptly put it on.
2015/03/04 20:00 A big mahalo to my FOM and Tiki brothers and sisters for coming out on a Tuesday night to hang with Karen and I. We woke up in southern Illinois Tuesday morning, drove about eight hours, and made it to the Grass Skirt Tiki Room in Columbus, Ohio. We thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality shown last night.
With Theresa Grippo Beardsley at the SU game last night.