Happy Forth

Here is wishing you all a Happy and Safe 4th of July!! Since Ole Sugar has been in DC recently wandering around monuments, he is full of reminders to you. The one that comes to mind right now is at the Korean War Memorial. There is a plain marble wall above a pool with the inscription that kinda sums it up:
FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

IN PAX REQUIEM

Saying a final farewell to a dear friend today. Johnny, we will miss you.

Vacation Time!

Ole Sugar is going on vacation tomorrow. Not working. Not doing squat. So what does my Faithful Reader think Sugar does on vacation? Well he is getting on an airplane, sleeping a hotel, and eating in restaurants. I’m just standing beside myself here. This will be the third time in two months I have flown into Dulles. I think the security people know me now. But this will also be the first time the E and the boys have gone with me on a trip. As a matter of fact it is the first time in I don’t know how long that the four of us have gone on a trip together so I am looking forward to it on that level. I am not looking forward to getting E and Baby Boy to the gate (# 1’s flying in from FL and meeting us). I am anticipating it will be like herding kittens made of Jello. On the other hand, Empress has already warned me that I had best not go into my “airport” mode. This could be interesting. Anyway, kinda looking forward to doing the tourist thing in DC. Think I will ring up Barry and see if he and Michelle want to hang out.
Yall drop by if you're in the area.

And Now

Perhaps the greatest loss of all. With his passing, Billy has left us to the mercy of that obnoxious Sham Wow guy..........

A Thought

I was watching the only TV station that did not have a Michael Jackson tribute going on last night and saw/heard something that gave me pause. Long story short, a lady character told a male character that she considered him a good friend and wanted to keep that relationship. The guy said "that is the worst thing any woman can say to a man". A few minutes later, he shot himself.
NOW
I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this one. My friendships with women mean the world to me. Maybe he wanted more or had more with her and they were transitioning. So what dude, keep the relationship. There are lots of us out there that say they have lots of friends. Well I don't and I cherish each and everyone of them. I would not know what I would do without (alphabetically here so I don't get in trouble) Average Chick, Cake Lady, Jennybean, Saucy, and Southern Sweetheart.
Guys (talking to the men now), ya need to try a friendship with a woman. It can be fun and rewarding. You will learn more about yourself than you ever knew (and that can be scary sometimes).
Yall play pretty out there now.

So Sad

Any male who is anywhere close to my age is now officially heartbroken:

Sorry, No HNT :(

I love being in the office.
There is a young lady here that is trying to get accepted to an online dating service. Don’t know which one but she is having problems. Quite frankly if they ever did an audio she would get no hits just from her whiney voice. Really folks she can say Merry Christmas and make it sound like a complaint. Anyway, her confidant in this endeavor shares a cube wall with me so my day is a whole lot of TMI. It seems here current problem is with her picture submission. Now let me say that this young lady is not unattractive. As a matter of fact if she never spoke she would be quite attractive. The online service has rejected her head shots because she did not show shoulders and she has shown too much below the shoulders (and she does have a bit to show). Today’s whine is that they have finally accepted a shot but have cropped to a point where she is complaining that none of her “assets” are showing. My colleague in the next cube says that is her best feature. Maybe she should just go to CraigsList and fish out there.
And if there are any of my clients out there reading this, yes this is what we do when we are not answering your phone calls/emails.

Wonderful Weekend!

So ole Sugar has been out for six of the last seven weeks. Now while I don’t mind not being in my executive cubicle, I do miss sleeping in my own bed and cooking my own food (using something more than a microwave). Cruised home from the airport on Friday looking forward to a couple of days of just hanging out at the house. I knew I would have some chores but was also looking forward to working around my house. The Empress got home and things started to go just a bit awry. Seems like her Aunt suddenly discovered a key DR appointment for E’s Mom (MIL) on Monday. This is a big deal as one must purchase their tickets in advance for these things. Luckily E was able to score a seat and plans were made to head south. First plan was to drive down to beach Saturday and spend the night. No rooms available (on a side note, how do people just drive down to a resort area and wander into available rooms?). We decided to do our yard work and then head on down to MIL’s, spend the night, and head for the beach. Part of Plan B was to drop MIL off at her Boyfriend’s house on our way to the beach (notice a theme here?).
So I hopped on my trusty riding lawn mower (NOT a tractor) and started away. All was well with the world until I heard a vey ugly sound under the cutting deck. It seems that I hit a killer rock. Noise, dirt flying, and gouges in the lawn later I basically discovered that the killer rock had managed to bend one of the blades. It may come to a shock to my Faithful Reader that Ole Sugar is not mechanically inclined so he was trying to (1) find a place to fix the blade (E suggested trying to straighten it out with a hammer) and (b) figuring out how to get the mother to the repair shop. While doing that, I grabbed the trusty push mower to finish up. After about two rows I noticed the back wheel was quite loose. As a matter of fact the effin thing just fell off. I was not in my happy place. E allowed when the blade bent she would call her friend’s hubby and see if he knew of a repair place. I asked her not to do it because I knew he would drop what he was doing and come over and fix the thing. Not to turn down a free repair job but the guy had worked that morning (his job requires getting up at 230 AM) and I hated to mess with him. When I walked into the house carrying my wheel, E was shocked to get caught talking to XXX (the hubby). Told me that he would be over in about 20 minutes. I was still not in my happy place. XXX came over, replaced the blade, installed training wheels on the rider, and didn’t even break a sweat in 95 degree heat. I declared that with my luck going the way it was, I was not hitting the highway. We would head to the beach on Sunday.
Got up and hit the road. Cruised into E’s hometown and MIL was even ready to go. Scooped her up and headed for the BF’s house. Life is good. Well when we got there, he was not home. Seems that no one thought to tell him that we were coming by to drop MIL off for the day!! She dug into her purse and pulled out about six key rings. None of the keys fit the door. Beach getting farther and farther away. BF could only be 3 places so we drove around and found what we thought was his car. MIL said it looked like it, checked and said it had his stuff in it, but wasn’t sure if it was his car. We took a chance a left a note to come straight to his house. Well he showed up and we got her warehoused for the day. Did hit the beach for about 3 hours with no further incidents which was a good thing cause I am too pretty to go to prison and I would have killed someone.
So the planned peaceful weekend finally arrived. I got 3 hours on the beach in return for 8 or 9 hours on the road. The best thing was on Monday when MIL’s shrink told her in front of her sister, my dysfunctional hysterical PITA sis in law the MIL was entitled to make her own decisions, and that everyone should back off and leave her alone. Specifically said that she should spend time with the BF if that is what she wanted to do (and that kills sis in law).
Despite the initial travails I guess all was well that ended well. And my car turned 100,000 miles in an are where I could pull over and get a picture. Life is good.
And now I get to sit in my executive cubicle for 3 days......