Unemployed

Yep, that's right, I got laid off on Wednesday at quitting time. Luckily for me they said to come back on the 24th of this month. It really came as a surprise to me though, I knew that things were slow but I didn't know that they were THAT bad. So sixty percent of us just got a week's enforced vacation.

So what have I been doing with my time you ask? Nothing, and I'm loving every minute of it. I singed up for unemployment on Thursday afternoon (thanks George) and I've been just relaxing around the house ever since.

I've been taking a room a day and cleaning it while the wife is at work. I told her not to worry about any housework while I'm laid off except for laundry. But for me cleaning the house isn't really work, not compared to hefting forty pound axles all day long.

The only bad thing for me is that I'd have liked to go see my dad in West Virginia while I'm off but the timing is bad. I'm almost out of my meds and I don't have a refill. I have to go to my doctor on the 19th to get one and by then I couldn't really go down there for more than three days.

Bummer, my Dad would have loved a week long visit if I could have managed it. Oh well, Stacey and I plan to go down there sometime late next month anyway so that will have to do.

My Fair Lady

Well, not much going on lately. Work is terribly slow, if it were not already a short work week I think we would only have enough work for four days anyway. This is not cool, makes for small paydays. :(

But rather than whine about my job woes I think I'll share a scene from one of my favorite movies, My Fair Lady. Enjoy.

A Stroke Of Luck

For the recent holiday I got a four day weekend! Mostly because work is VERY slow right now, but I enjoyed having the time off so I'm not complaining.

Payday fell on this weekend also which for me, meant Transformer shopping time! I set out this weekend to find the new Arcee figure. As usual since the movie came out, all the stores were empty! I swear I'm gonna set up a tent in the toy aisle at my local Target and Toys R Us, and the first scalper who comes in trying to buy all the figures at once so he can sell them on eBay is going to get shot in the face!

Being that she's the only female autobot she sorta reminds me of Smurfette.

The stores were not actually empty, but the pickings were slim. There are two versions of the Arcee figure available and I saw several of the one that I already have. (Not to mention the '08 Bumblebee figure I spent so long searching for, it figures.) But that was about it. So after going to three stores I settled on another figure that caught my eye. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Dropkick.


Although he comes in Transformers Movie packaging he's actually supposed to be a character from the new video game. I didn't care either way, it was love at first sight. He's a kick butt little figure!


So my wife and I headed home with me satisfied for the most part. Stacey was even so nice as to offer to buy me the $80 Ultimate Bumblebee figure because she felt sorry for me because I once again couldn't find what I was originally looking for. I thanked her but turned the offer down, I was satisfied with what I had and I really can't see spending 80 bucks on a Transformers toy that's not from the 80's. ($80 is a reasonable price for several of the old figures on eBay.)

On the way home we were passing a Super Kmart of all things and my wife asked me if I wanted to check there for the Arcee figure. I said what the heck and went in. They didn't have it either but they had the #1 toy on my wish list instead! The Titanium G1 Ultra Magnus! I snatched up the box as if there were a troop of Transformer geeks right behind me about to take it from me. (Actually I was the only one in the Toy aisle.)


I left the store in geek heaven, the Swedish Bikini team could have passed me by and I wouldn't have noticed. I've been looking for this figure for months to no avail. My wife said it was a wonder I wasn't tearing the box open in the car before we made it home.

As I said before in another post this figure most accurately portrays the way the character appears in the original 80's cartoon. As with all Titanium figures he's not very posable, being that he was meant primarily to be a display piece. And once I transformed it into vehicle mode I realized that they had sacrificed some of it's accuracy in favor of providing the much better robot mode.


Overall it's a great little figure for a collector but not really something that you'd want to buy for a kid because it's a little too delicate. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it an 8 just because of it's accurate portrayal of Ultra Magnus.

Ultra Magnus saying "Hi" to the rest of the boys.

The Michigan State Fair (Horsey luv!)

Well something worth blogging about has happened so I'm back. Yesterday my beautiful wife and I went to the Michigan State Fair. We took my foster Mom and my nephew Georgie with us.

Once we got there we realized that we had a conflict of interests on our hands. While Stacey and I wanted to go see the farm animals, little Georgie was all about the rides! He grumbled and complained as we by-passed the midway with it's rides and games to head for the livestock.

Mom & Georgie with their new pal Johnny Bravo.

The little guy seemed to enjoy the animals too but every time we left an exhibit he'd ask "NOW can we go to the rides?" It was kinda funny and annoying at the same time but hey, what do you want? He's only 8 years old.

Georgie at one of the animal exhibits.

Yes we did eventually take Georgie to the rides and he had a ball. Stacey and I got him a bracelet so he could ride anything he was tall enough for and that little boy definitely got our money's worth out of the thing! My Mom took Georgie to the midway and that was the last we saw of them for a couple of hours. My poor Mom was SO tired by the time we left yesterday.

Georgie FINALLY getting to ride at the midway.

Meanwhile Stacey and I were on a mission. Last year when we were at the fair, we met an older horse named Amanda who was definitely the most friendly animal there. We spent a lot of time there with her and this year we were hoping that she'd be back.

Amanda is a 22yr old, Old Style Morgan. Which is getting kinda old for a horse. Her breed is known for their easy going disposition and versatility. She's a bit on the smaller size in comparison to many of the other horses there. But last year she made us forget about all the other horses there with her affectionate personality.

After searching the stables for a while we did finally find her. I didn't realize how much I'd missed her until I walked up to her stall. Amanda turned her head towards my outstretched hand and then nuzzled me in the chest and I felt my eyes grow hot with tears!

Me getting horsey luv from my Amanda.

Yep! I was about to cry for the joy of seeing my horse! I didn't even know I'd liked her that much! But once I found her part of me wanted to tell my wife and Mom to go on without me, I wanted to stay with Amanda. She nuzzled my hand and I gave her some Timothy hay I'd stolen from another exhibit just for her. While she chomped up her treat I stroked her strong neck and talked to her.

My real Dad in West Virginia would know exactly how I felt I think. When he was a kid my Grandfather kept horses to work on his farm and Dad still talks fondly of some of them as if they were old friends. Maybe it's the hillbilly in me coming out eh?

Anyway we did eventually leave the stables and continue our touring of the fair. My Wife, Mom, and Nephew all seemed to have a great time. Stacey even entered a cupcake decorating contest while we were there! I personally thought she did the best job of anyone there but unfortunately none of the judges seemed to share in my bias. Oh well maybe next year their eyes will be opened to my wife's cupcake decorating prowess.

If this isn't an a first place cupcake then I don't know what is!

One of the cuter exhibits they had at the fair was the Miracle of Life. There you can see all kinds of baby animals, most only a few days old! While a few sections were a little gross because the have live births, most were fun and directed towards children. Even Georgie seemed to forget the midway for a little while.

Some hot blond chicks.

Surprisingly, to me anyways, my wife seemed to enjoy this exhibit less than I did. I know that Stacey enjoyed it to an extent but I found out the she's not very interested in little chicks all that much. She did seem to like the larger mammals though and found a VERY cute little piglet crying for his mommy. There are pictures of the cute little fella on her blog, here.

Momma sheep and her 3 day old baby.

Finally after being at the fair for over six hours we decided it was time to go. But before we did however, I talked everyone into going to the stables one last time so I could say goodbye to my beloved Amanda.

Both of my lady loves, Stacey and Amanda.

Yes I'm still alive

I know I haven't posted anything in a while but I'm still here. Just doing the daily routine this week and nothing new has really happened worth blogging about. So here's something to keep you entertained in the meanwhile. My Pug Frankie's favorite video!

Happy Birthday Georgie!

Today was my nephew Georgie's birthday party! Stacey and I spent most of our afternoon there just relaxing and having fun with my family. Little Georgie ended up with $105 dollars in birthday money! Gee ,times have changed, I never ended up with more than 20-25 dollars total on a birthday when I was a kid.

It never ceases to amaze me how much Georgie likes me. I mean I'm good to him and treat him kindly but so does everyone else around there, but sometimes he makes such a big deal out of me that I get embarrassed. Today when we were pulling up to my parents house Stacey started laughing because Georgie was yelling "It's Donnie! It's Donnie!" I thought it was sweet of him but honestly it made me self-conscious about getting out of the car! lol!

As we walked up to the house Georgie eyed the gift bag I was carrying anxiously and asked "Is that for me?" I laughed and told him that he'd have to wait and see. Stacey helped me find a Transformers gift bag with Bumblebee on it so he probably suspected there was a Transformer waiting in there somewhere.

We had cake and ice cream after we all sang Happy Birthday to the little guy and he seemed to be having a ball. There were several other kids there from the neighborhood and they were all running around in the front yard playing with plastic swords.

When he opened his presents he would go give the person who gave it to him a big hug and tell them "Thanks!, I love you!" It was so cute. I was proud of him taking the time out to show his appreciation.

I think the best part of the party for me was the look on his face when he saw his presents from Stacey & I. When he got to our gift he pulled out the first Bumblebee figure and said "Wow! Nana look it's Bumblebee!" to my mom. Then he went back in the bag and found the other one and asked me with surprise "You mean you gave me YOUR Bumblebees?!" I told him yes and this seemed like a big deal to him for some reason, and I was touched.

I got my hug from him and told him that I loved him too and felt satisfied. It felt very good to give him a present that I knew he really wanted. I'd say that those two figures were worth every penny and every minute spent searching for them.

Have a very Happy Birthday Georgie, I love you.

Family time

Last night I went over to visit with my foster parents and pick up my new Bumblebee figure. As soon as I entered the house my nephew Georgie yelled "Donnie!" and ran to greet me. I said my hellos and he followed me into the dining room where my package was waiting for me. When I opened it he oohed and ahhed over it like it was the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen. It was so cute.

Then he told me that he had his own transformer collection that he wanted to show me. He showed me a handful of smaller figures and I oohed and ahhed over them appropriately. I knew the little guy desperately wanted his "uncle" Donnie's approval and I told him that they were great.

Showing me one of his transformers he asked me if I had that same figure at home and being honest I told him that I didn't. I was telling the truth but I also told him this hoping that this would make him feel like he had something special to be proud of. Then the little cutie looked down at the toy seriously for a moment and then told me that if I wanted it I could have it.

That was so sweet of him that it almost brought tears to my eyes. I told him thank you but that he should hang onto it because I would go get one for myself some other time. He seemed a little disappointed over this at first, but there is no way I could have taken this little sweethearts toy from him. I don't care if it had been one of the figures I've always wanted.

I was so touched by Georgie's selflessness. Most kids wouldn't have done that I don't think. But little Georgie wanted to get my approval so bad he was willing to give me one of his toys to get it. That is just too sweet.

Saturday is his birthday party, although his real birthday is actually on Sunday. I found out from my mom that he's been wanting the bumblebee figure's from the movie ever since he saw it a few weeks ago. My sister thought that she had found what he was wanting but it had turned out to just be a statue of Bumblebee that doesn't even have any moving parts. She said that he opened it and fiddled around with it a few seconds and said "It doesn't fold up!". LOL! Poor little guy.

I went on eBay this evening and purchased the two figures from the movie again. They are a preorder and won't be shipped out until next month sometime. So I'm going to take the two opened Bumblebee toys I have here and box them up and wrap them and give them to Georgie on Saturday for his birthday. I hope that he doesn't mind that they're not still in the packages. They are in mint condition with all the paperwork and accessories, so I hope this will be o.k. with him.

Afterwards I went upstairs and visited with my foster dad for a couple of hours. I had a great time just chatting about computers and ham radios with him and a friend of the family that was also visiting. Alas time flies when your having fun and before I knew it I had to get home and go to bed.